As an Auror and your Brother
by fanfictionlover101
Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts, has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.
1. Congratulations

As An Auror and Your Brother

A/N: Please review and tell me if this is a good idea. I would really appreciate the feedback. Also, when I mention the Weasleys, I'm including Fleur as she married Bill before this happened.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters (except random Death Eaters possibly and Atticus Flynn).

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts, has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather, soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

"Harry Potter." The name, read by Kinglsy Shacklebolt, rang out in the large Ministry room. There was a huge cheer from the mass of people who had congregated there as the certificates were handed out to those who had recently completed their Auror training.

A man with messy, black hair and bright green eyes walked to the front of the room with a strong purposeful stride to receive his certificate. "Thank your sir," Harry said as he shook the hand of the Minister of Magic.

The Minister smiled at him and said "Good luck Harry. I wish you all the best." Next, Harry moved on to shake the hand of the Head of the Auror Department, Atticus Flynn.

"I'll be glad to work with you sir." After only a year of hard training, Harry had managed to become an Auror. He really had a knack for achieving things in less time then it would normally take for anyone else. First the youngest seeker in a century, now the youngest Auror in almost just as long.

"And I with you. You've done a lot for the community already Mr. Potter." Atticus Flynn looked to be in his late fifties. He had almost waist-long dirty blonde hair that was usually pulled back in to a low ponytail and you did not often see him without his sunglasses, even indoors ("makes it harder for someone to use occlumency against you.") Like Mad-Eye Moody, he had battle scars all over his face and walked with a limp although he hadn't lost any limbs yet so Harry supposed there was still hope in this line of work for retaining limbs and other pieces of the body. Kingsly had come out alright.

"Thank you sir." Harry turned as he shook Atticus Flynn's hand to get his picture taken by a beaming Ginny Weasley, his girlfriend of sixteen months. Beside Ginny sat his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who were going to be married this summer. Harry walked back down to his seat with a feeling of euphoria. Training had been difficult but it was worth it.

"Congratulations Harry! I'm so proud of you!" Hermione squealed in his ear ten minutes later as they left.

"Now we have to go back to the Burrow and celebrate! I know mum's made a cake. And it looked delicious. I wonder what kind it is..." Ron said with a dreamy expression.

"Ron, snap out of it! Come on, hurry up! I know mum's staring to get jumpy, waiting to see the certificate." Ginny said with more than a note of pride in her voice.

Together they apparated back to the Burrow and almost immediately a short woman with flaming red hair and an apron came running out to meet them.

"Did you get it?" Molly Weasley cried out breathlessly.

Harry just grinned and held up the certificate.

Molly squealed and pulled Harry into a bone-crunching hug. "Mrs. Weasley, I can't breathe.

Molly let go of him, beaming like Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "Come on mum, we already know he passed," Ron said.

"But this just makes it more official. Come along now. Everyone's waiting inside."

Harry wasn't sure what to expect. Everyone? His question was answered when he walked through the door. Andromeda and Ted Tonks were there, holding onto little Teddy, Neville was talking to George who was holding onto Alicia's hand, Professor McGonagall was there as well, with her hair in a tight bun and wearing her usual green robes. Hagrid, who looked way to big to be inside was also there with a massive grin showing through his immensely bushy beard and the rest of the Weasley's were there as well as many from the Order of the Phoenix.

A chorus of voices rose up around the room saying a variety of things like "Congratulations Harry!", "Well done, Harry!" and "I knew you could do it!".

"Thanks guys. I really appreciate you being here today to celebrate."

Mrs. Weasley cut in at this point, "Help yourself to some food and drinks, there's plenty to go around."

Harry found himself being approached by many of the guests to see the certificate and to get a pat on the back for his accomplishment. He was just wondering how long this was going to go on for (he still liked his peace and quiet) when he saw Professor McGonagall leave the house out the back door. Harry squeezed his way through people to follow her out and found her sitting on the bench of one of two picnic tables out on the lawn.

"Mr. Potter. Congratulations." Harry had to grin at that. She was a very skilled witch and always knew when someone was sneaking up behind her. Or following her for that matter.

"Thanks Professor."

"Please, call me Minerva."

"Only if you'll call me Harry."

"Very well. Harry. What are you doing out here when there is a celebration going on inside?"

"I was wondering the same thing about you Pro - Minerva." Minerva smiled.

"I was just thinking. Mostly about you and how far you've come since I first saw you come up the stairs into the Entrance Hall. I say this a lot but it really does seem like yesterday when I met you for the first time. It's the same with every student who passes through Hogwarts. Your Mum and Dad, Sirius, Remus, Peter and countless other students."

Harry sat down beside her to listen. "You could sometimes tell from first sight what they would become or do. It's a constant talk among the teachers. Who will do this or that? Who will go there? There are many surprises at Hogwarts and in people as you know very well. I never would have guessed that Peter would become a Death Eater. Or Severus." McGonagall gave a weak chuckle. "A Slytherin friends with a Gryffindor. Very unusual but I thought he would escape the threat of-"

The threat of what, Harry could only guess. At that moment there was a huge BANG, a scream and guests were running out of the house, wands drawn, ready to fight.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed. "Harry, they've got Hermione!"


	2. Let's DO Something Already

A/N: As always, please review and let me know if you like it. Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter. Just a couple of characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry paced angrily across the room as the other Aurors discussed what had happened last night at the Burrow. Why weren't they doing anything? Why were they just sitting there trying to figure out who took Hermione? It was obvious that it was a couple of Death Eaters who was still roaming around, perhaps lost without their master. When he voiced his opinion however, he was met with angry muttering and questions to Atticus Flynn.

"Why is he here?", "He's too young," and "He just came out of training, he doesn't have enough experience," were among those questions. Flynn listened to them angrily.

"I don't remember any of you passing your tests after only a year of training and I can't think of anyone more qualified or with more experience than the person who defeated The Dark Lord. I have heard about everything he's done in the past and he has done more than many of you. And two years ago, while we were all here working for Death Eaters, he was out there, fighting. And winning I might add. What did you do in the fight against Him? Tom? Kirich?" Both men looked slightly abashed and looked at the floor. Others were now also looking ashamed.

"Sorry sir. We didn't mean anything by it. It's just that he doesn't know..." Kolby trailed off into silence at the look he was being given.

"All right, is everyone going to listen now?" There was a chorus of "yes sir" from the group. "Okay, here we go. Miss Hermione Granger, a muggle born with a close association to Mr. Potter, went missing yesterday at 1:30pm from the Burrow. Home of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. There was a celebration going on at the time-" many of the Aurors smirked at this, knowing exactly what the celebration was for as they had done the same thing when they received their own certificates "of her disappearance. Two Death Eaters were seen disapparating just outside the boundaries of the house. No one has any idea how they got in either."

"Did anyone get a look at their faces? Hit them with any permanent jinxes or curses?"

Harry shook his head "They had their masks up and their hoods on. We don't even know if they were male or female. And the attack was so quick that we were still looking around for more Death Eaters before we noticed them holding Hermione. A few of us chased them but they disapparated as we were going around the corner from the back-yard."

The Aurors looked thoughtful for a minute. "Has anyone been to the site of the attack?" asked Tom.

"No," replied Harry. "Mr. and Mrs. Weasley spent the night at their eldest son's and his wife and all the guests left after a quick interrogation."

"Well, we'll need to bring some of the guests in for a more thorough questioning. And we should probably question the Death Eaters we have locked up too. See if they know who might have done it."

"That can be done. And we'll need to send a team out to look for some clues at the house. Kirich? Kolby? The two of you get a few others and check the place out?"

"Yes sir. No problem." Flynn continued to give orders and people left, usually a couple at a time until he and Harry were the only two left.

"Now, Mr. Potter. I know that you're used to dealing with difficult situations and whatnot but I don't know if it's a good idea for you to be on this case. You are extremely close to the victim and I don't want that to get in the way of better judgement."

"With all due respect sir, I need to stay on this case. You're right. We are close, she's like a sister to me but I know I can handle it. If I wasn't on the case, I would just look for her anyways. Please sir? I need to do this."

"I've heard of some rash decisions being made when it came to the safety of your friends."

"Yes, I know. But I have gone through enough to know how to talk myself out of it. In Hermione's voice of course, she was always the reasonable one."

Atticus Flynn gave Harry an appraising look before sighing and said, "Okay. I trust you. But be warned. If you let your emotions get in the way of your work, I will take you off the case and that will be an order. One that must be obeyed or you will be suspended."

"Yes sir." Harry was relieved that at least he would know what was going on and would be doing something. He just knew that he wouldn't want to be Ron right now. His best mate was probably going crazy while he waited for news and probably felt as angry as he did. However he was unable to participate in the investigation as he was still in training with at least two more years to go. He hadn't failed the test but you had to get more than a pass at it in order to be an Auror. The only reason he had been able to even take the test was because he had been at the battle against Voldemort and had been crucial.

"In that case Mr. Potter, I want you to go down to watch the interrogations. See how they're done. We'll be meeting here tomorrow, at 9 o'clock sharp. Remember, the early bird gets the worm." At Harry's surprised expression, Atticus said, "I'm a half-blood. My mum was a muggle. Now off you go."

Harry turned and began the walk down to the interrogation room. This was a different room from the one in the Department of Mysteries, one that copied the idea of the one-sided window from the muggle police. Harry watched the interviews, only half paying attention. The other part of his mind was thinking about what could be happening to Hermione at this very moment and feeling guilty that he hadn't managed to get to her in time, to save her as she had saved him so many times in the past year alone. I'll find you Hermione. And I'll get you home and back to Ron no matter what.


	3. On the Underground

A/N: Please review. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters :).

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

"Harry! Hey Harry!," Ron shouted from down the hall to Harry's retreating back. Harry turned in surprise, he had thought Ron would have left by now. "What's going on? Have you found anything yet?," he asked as he caught up to Harry.

"No, not yet. We're still questioning people, trying to see if they saw something they didn't realize they saw. We're also checking out the Burrow for clues." Ron looked completely lost. "Listen, do you want to come back and stay with me and Ginny?"

"Ok, I just have to get some clothes and tell mum where I'm going before she thinks I'm gone too," there was evidence in his voice that he would really rather be gone instead of his fiancé, or at least doing something about it. They travelled back to the apparating site of the Ministry in silence, both occupied by their thoughts. "See you in a few," Ron disapparated, and Harry quickly followed suit.

He appeared just outside the boundaries that had been set around the house to stop people from apparating or disapparating into or close to the house without any warning. He had just enough time to gather his thoughts for as he walked up the drive and into the house when Ginny did exactly what he expected her to do.

"Harry! Is there any news yet?" She looked flustered and Harry remembered the interview. Hermione had become like a sister to Ginny and of course she was upset that Hermione had disappeared.

"No, nothing. We're working on it though."

"Working on it? That doesn't sound promising."

Harry turned to her and told her bluntly "There's not much I can tell you. And don't look at me like that, I want her back just as much as you do," he was beginning to lose some of the patience that had come back after watching countless interviews, "Oh, and Ron's coming by to stay with us for a bit." No sooner had he said this then there was a tiny 'pop' and Ron came walking up the drive just as Harry had done. He looked dazed and confused. Ginny ran out to lead him in by the hand, reassuring him quietly.

"Come on Ron, I'll make you a cup of tea," and Ginny went to work immediately, getting the tea ready and some food. Ron just stared around unsure of what to do with himself.

Harry couldn't stand the site of the normalcy of things like tea and food when one of his best friends was missing and went out to the backyard and leaned against the sturdy white fence. Apparently Ron didn't feel much like eating either for he soon joined him. Together, they stood in silence. Thoughts were running through Harry's mind, of Hermione, of what to say to Ron, how to assure him when he felt as hopeless as Ron looked. Eventually, Harry decided to go to bed and found Ginny sitting at her favourite spot in the house, the window seat. When he walked in, Ginny got up and he hugged her close, allowing the pain of losing Hermione to overcome him. Ginny was safe and that was something to be thankful for wasn't it? They went to bed but neither of them fell asleep and neither of them heard Ron come back inside.

The next day, Harry got up at about five o'clock after a restless nights sleep and went to have a cold shower. Returning to the bedroom, he found Ginny still asleep, looking more peaceful than she had since the attack. He got dressed into deep blue robes and left early. The ministry didn't open for another two hours and it would be ridiculous to get there at this time. He decided to take the underground which would be slower and something might distract him for a moment from Hermione's disappearance. As it turned out, it was definitely a good thing that he took the underground.

"Are you planning anything else?" The voice was low, threatening and right behind him.

"What do you mean? I'm sure that one was enough. It's not as if he needs anyone else. And the kid will do anything to get her back."

"He's not underage anymore! You can't underestimate him!," the tone was angry and somewhat familiar.

"Yes well, Deimos will-"

"Shut up! You don't know who's listening! I know that mudblood has some very strong and talented friends."

"Whatever. Why are we taking the underground with the filthy muggles?"

"There's less chance of meeting another wizard on here as you very well know. Now shut-"

Heart pounding, Harry got up and turned around but as he pulled out his wand, the two men disapparated. Their exclamations of surprise still ringing in his ears, he yelled out in anger and frustration. Two of them had been right behind him! He knew he should jump to conclusions but he knew he was right. There was no other explanation for their conversation. Harry looked around, making sure no one was watching and apparated to the ministry, too excited to wait. Checking his watch, he swore angrily: Quarter to eight. There was still too much time. He began to pace, wishing that time would go faster. Suddenly there was a scurry of activity and he felt relief flood through him as the ministry doors were opened for the day.

He walked briskly down to the Auror office and waited impatiently. One by one, they entered the office and Harry had a hard time stopping himself from telling them everything he had heard until Flynn arrived. At nine o'clock sharp, Flynn walked in and Harry stood up quickly and the others let him talk first having seen how jumpy he was when they entered the room.

After Harry had told Flynn what happened, he got down to business. Harry could describe them both. The first man was tall and lanky with a buzz cut and heavy eyebrows. His hair was black but had silvery streaks. This man also knew how to dress like a muggle which raised many suspicions. What Death Eater wanted to show off the fact that they knew about muggles? And then the second man had been of medium height with brown hair which was cut very badly in a cheap likeness to a mushroom cut. He had thin, slanting eyebrows and blue eyes. He evidently did not know how to dress as a muggle for he had settled for a trench-coat, knee-high socks and a pair of basketball shorts.

"Alright, we're getting somewhere! Let's get the descriptions out there, Potter go with Ulaha and Jericho so we get their pictures right. The rest of you, I want you to tell me what you learned yesterday." He then turned back to Harry, Ulaha and Jericho to say "And when you're done, come back here and I'll fill you in. Well? What are you three still here for? Get going!" And with that, he turned back to the others who immediately started talking.


	4. The Drawings

A/N: Please review. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry followed Ulaha and Jericho into the room where all the pictures or drawings were, listening to them bicker about something completely unimportant. Of course, he may've found it amusing if it had not been Hermione who was missing, if it had been someone he didn't know. He knew that was wrong. But either way, he wished that they'd hurry up but refrained from saying anything. He had learned in all his years and then training after that, that rushing could mean missing something, could hurt more than it could help. At least when things were planned, you had an idea of what you were doing and probably had more information than just winging it.

"No way man, I heard that Ryder is out injured, it's going to be Puddlemere.," Jericho was saying to Ulaha.

"Ha! The only decent player they have is Montgomery and he's not the best."

"They've got Wood too."

"Oh yeah!," Harry would have gladly joined in on this conversation seeing as Oliver Wood, his old Quidditch captain was involved, indirectly in the discussion and he could have added quite a bit to it to back up Jericho but he just didn't have it in him. "If we go any slower, we'll be going backwards," thought Harry who was totally annoyed. The two Aurors ahead of Harry stopped suddenly and Harry moved up beside them to see what was going on.

"No! No, you'll never take me you evil, you AHHH!" The three of them stared as a man with rolling eyes and a dancing leg was dragged past them by two Healers. There was definitely something else wrong with him too as he was saying, "Let go of me you bloody SPHINX!!!! The monkey's are out to get me!!!! BAHAHAHA!!." As they disappeared around a corner, the man's howls continued until they were well away from the scene.

"Hmm I wonder what happened to him. Probably a 'friendly little duel'," Ulaha snickered and they kept on walking.

"You shouldn't laugh at that. I know it happened to you one day. What was it? You were so drunk that you decided to tell your brother that he was marrying a little 'ball of slime' among other things in the middle of their wedding? I seem to remember that you were in St. Mungo's for a week with tentacles growing out of you everywhere and pus spilling out your ears." Ulaha glared at Jericho and even Harry couldn't suppress his laughter at this. "Come on, before Flynn comes down and starts yelling at us for taking more than five minutes."

Turning to Harry he said, "Flynn gets really worked up when we're on a case. And as I'm sure you know, they usually get Missing Persons to search for missing witches and wizards but seeing as it was an attack and part of the house was destroyed, we know it's Death Eaters. Or what's remaining of them. Anyways, Flynn really wanted this case for some reason, we heard him arguing with the Minister over it..." Harry was surprised. Why would Flynn want this case so badly? Could he have known that Harry would want to do something about it because he was close to the victim? Or did he have an ulterior motive?

They walked into the room, Ulaha and Jericho still arguing over Quidditch and only when they had a piece of paper and a quill did they stop and turn to Harry, "Ok, so what did the first one look like?"

Harry thought about it, though carefully. Hermione's life could depend on this description. As Harry spoke, the quill drew the picture. Sometimes Harry would have to tell it that the eyebrow was too long, or the eye was too big and becoming frustrated, he yelled, "I said he's got a scar down from just above his right eye to the center of his cheek you-" and it continued on with a few choice words from Harry.

"Er, Harry? I think it'll be okay," Ulaha said, trying to be reassuring for Harry had just pulled out his own quill. Now, it's not fair to say that Harry was a terrible drawer. Especially after all those hours in History of Magic with Professor Binns. However, he definitely was not the right person to draw the men. The end result of his drawing was something that resembled a troll. Harry threw down his quill and yelled out in anger. "Just relax, kid," Harry just glared at him and then back at the parchment. If looks could burn, the picture would be a pile of ashes.

"Harry," Jericho said softly, "I know that this is hard on you. A lot of us have been in similar situations, but trying to draw the picture yourself, might not help much. Let the quill do it. Remember that this is how we've been drawing descriptions for years when no picture was available. Come now," this seemed to do the trick. Harry looked down at his drawing, sighed and summoned another piece of parchment.

"Alright," and without further ado, he described the men to the quill, this time, already having done it once, knowing that the quill needed every little detail, the pictures came together. There on the parchment were the faces of two men, one supporting black hair with silver streaks and the other, brown hair with brilliant blue eyes.

"YES!," cheered the other two Aurors. "We knew you had it in you kiddo!" Jericho was grinning from ear to ear. "Let's get these to the copier and get upstairs before Flynn has a heart attack. Come on, let's give everyone something to talk about." With this in mind, they walked out of the room looking every bit the Aurors that they were. Tall, muscular and proud of their accomplishment. Harry smiled to himself. These two really were two pieces of work. And he had a feeling that he was really going to like getting to know them.

Within moments though, their contentment and slight euphoria was gone as a shriek echoed down the hallway. Drawing their wands, the three ran down yelling for people to get into the nearest room and not to panic. Skidding around the corner, the three stopped in amazement. There, kneeling on the ground was the same man they had passed earlier, the one who was yelling about monkeys and laughing like a maniac.

"They're coming Potter! They're coming!," he said this is a husky voice, seeming to slide in and out of insanity. Concentrating on the words coming from his mouth and trying to get information from him, they noticed too late that he was bleeding rather badly and that his voice was getting weaker with each passing second. With a last, "They're coming," the man fell sideways and moved no more.

"They're gone. I just checked with Ernie at the front desk. He said the Healers had left and - and that they took him with them..." Ulaha and Harry just stared at him, unable to comprehend what he had just said.

"Took - took him with them?" Ulaha said faintly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said," snapped Jericho. "They left the Ministry. Presumably for St. Mungo's."

"Let's go there then. The Healer's might be able to tell us something," said Harry. Ulaha and Jericho nodded.

"First, we need to tell Flynn though. I don't think he'd take too kindly on us just disappearing after what happened. You two go back, I'll make sure they get his body out of here," suggested Jericho. He suddenly sounded tired.

"Okay. But maybe you should also find out what killed him. Stick with him, we'll tell Flynn where you've gone. Come on Harry, let's go." With that, Ulaha walked out and to the elevator which they had used to get to this level.

They were soon telling Flynn what had just happened. "Are you sure? That they left I mean?" Harry and Ulaha looked at each other.

"Well.."

"That's what I thought. Ulaha, go see Ernie and try to find out what you can about them leaving. If you see Jericho, tell him to go to get his sorry arse back here. Harry, go to St. Mungo's. Find the Healers who were supposedly with him. Find out what they know."

"You think the Healers might not have been Healers sir?"

"I don't know Harry, I just don't know."


	5. St Mungo's

A/N: I really wasn't sure what to do with this chapter. Sorry if it feels a little out of place. Please review though. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry walked into St. Mungo's using the entrance that was disguised by the apparently abandoned muggle shop, Purge and Dowse Ltd. He remembered only too well the other occasion when he had come to the wizard hospital, to visit Arthur Weasley after he had seen him being attacked by Nagini. He strolled up to the witch at the desk and asked where he could find two Healers, female who had gone to the Ministry to get a bloke who wasn't right in the head. The bored looking receptionist directed him upstairs to the Summerbee Ward.

"Oh, wait! Only Katrina's in that one. Michelle is in the Toothill Ward." Harry stared at her for a second, wondering why a ward would be called Toothill but he simply shrugged, and turned to go upstairs.

Going up the stairs and checking the plaque at each level, Harry found the Toothill Ward on the second flight of stairs. Going in, Harry found a woman who looked somewhat familiar. Figuring that this was because he had seen her today at the Ministry, he asked, "Hello, are you Michelle? I'm looking for a Healer that was at the Ministry today looking after a man who looked cursed." The woman looked at him for a second and then gasped in recognition.

"Harry Potter! No, I'm not Michelle. She's over in that room," The Healer pointed down the hall to the right a little bit. "We've met before though! I'm Healer Janelle. I take care of Mr. Lockhart. Bless his soul." She giggled and went on, "Oh! There she is. I'm sorry but I must get going, I don't want to leave Mr. Lockhart for too long." Still giggling, she walked away and down the stairs. Harry hurried after the woman that Healer Janelle had pointed out.

"Excuse me! Please, I need to talk to you! Healer Michelle?" The woman turned and Harry was sure this time that he had found the right person.

"Yes, I'm Healer Michelle. How may I help you?" The question was innocent enough but Harry wasn't sure if he could trust her or not. Flynn's warning before he had left was still ringing in his ears "Don't trust anybody," was what he had said and Harry was determined not to get into trouble on his first mission.

"I'm Harry Potter, I'm from the Ministry. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"

"Yes. But please, give me a moment. I need to check on a patient."

"Go ahead. I'll be waiting," said Harry and he watched her as she walked into a room, left the door open and started to bustle around, checking a man with a nasty wound to his face. She put some ointment on the wound which had started bleeding again and then put another bandage on it. Something clicked. "Hold it!" Harry walked into the room and the Healer started in surprise.

"Mr. Potter, I must ask you to wait outside," she said in a strong voice that allowed no room for argument. Unless you were Harry Potter, one of the most stubborn people on Earth.

"Healer Michelle, this is the man who was in the Ministry today, the one you were leading out. I need to know what happened."

The Healer looked at him suspiciously and then said, "Katrina and I were called to clean up a mess at the Ministry, a man had shown up and he was shouting nonsense and had pus spilling out all over the place and was bleeding quite badly. But his face wasn't like this, it wasn't even scratched. As we were leaving, there was a bang and a huge cloud of smoke filled the air. We lost our grip on him. When the smoke cleared away a minute later, we found him laying on the floor with a deep gash in his cheek. He was losing a lot of blood so we left immediately to get him a blood replenishing potion."

"What caused the bang and the smoke?"

"Oh it was one of those cursed muggle artifacts. I know for a fact that if Arthur Weasley still worked in that department, that explosion never would have happened."

She looked at him coldly as if expecting him to say that Arthur was a bad man or that muggles should be baited like that or something. Instead he settled for saying, "I know. I'm sorry. Do you know who was holding the object?"

"A medium man with one of the worst hair cuts I've ever seen. I'm sorry that's all I can tell you. Why don't you go ask Katrina, she may've seen more."

Harry walked out of the room, feeling as though he had just stepped into a freezing cold shower. He had been in the same building? One of the men who knew where Hermione was being held had been at the Ministry! He felt anger building up inside of him. Why hadn't he gone down instead of Jericho? He would have seen him, recognized him. But why was he there? And there would have been many problems if Harry had just finished the drawings sooner. Oh Merlin. It was his fault. He hadn't been fast enough. If he had just told the quill what to draw, and not tried to draw the man himself, it might have been a photograph that was going into the newspaper instead of a drawing on parchment. He was walking up the stairs looking at the plaques but not really reading them. He realized this just in time to see that it was the Summerbee Ward. He entered and found the hall strangely deserted. He walked down the hall, alert, waiting for any sign of someone jumping out and getting ready to fling himself to the side if needed. A Healer exited one of the rooms just in front of him and he quickly asked if she knew where Healer Katrina was.

"She's in that room over there."

"Thank you very much."

"She's not in any trouble is she?"

"No, why would you think that?"

"Oh, nothing. You just look so grim," said the girl and she walked away giggling. Argh! Why did girls always giggle? No matter, I need to find Katrina. Harry moved to the door that the Healer had just indicated, knocked and opened it. What he found made his insides squirm. Sure, he had seen some pretty nasty stuff but this topped the cake.

On the ground, lay a woman, clearly dead. She had a deep gash in the side of her head, almost as though somebody had taken an axe and tried to cut off half her head. Her robes were those of a Healer but that was barely distinguishable from all the rips and slashes through the material. Not to mention that the robes were also covered in blood. It was like Sectumsempra had been used on her with a lot of force, force that he hadn't even been willing to use on Draco Malfoy and it wasn't likely that he would use that much force on _any _enemy. He scanned the rest of the room wearily, it looked normal. He walked in and searched the room for people. Not finding anyone, he turned, walked out and shut the door. Then he sent a Patronus to Flynn telling him what he had found.

If the situation hadn't been so serious, Harry would have laughed as a squat little man who worked in management for St. Mungo's came running up to him, followed quickly by Flynn and Kirich.

"Where's the body Potter?"

"In here sir. No one else has gone in. As a matter of fact, no one else has even been down this hall."

Upon seeing the body, Kirich turned to Flynn and asked quietly, "Who could have done this?"

Flynn sighed, "I don't know. But we have to solve this and fast. I want you two to go back to the office and tell everyone to get back here. Whoever killed this woman-"

"Her name's Katrina, she's a Healer here. Or, was." The squat little man cut in.

Flynn glared at him for a second, "Anyways, I'm guessing whoever killed her, was the same person who killed the man in the Ministry. Now we just need to figure out who and why."

"Sir? This woman, she may have seen something. The receptionist downstairs told me that she was one of the Healers who was at the Ministry, escorting the man."

"Who was the other Potter? Quickly!"

"Healer Michelle," and at once the three Aurors rushed down the stairs back to the Toothill Ward where they found Healer Michelle just waiting to go in to check on one of her patients.

"Wait! Don't open that door!"

The Healer jumped back, startled. "Why not? One of my patients is in there and he needs my help. He was just calling for me." She saw their faces and asked what happened.

"We found Healer Katrina. She's dead," said Flynn. "We believe that she was murdered because she knew something. Something that you might know, we don't know. We're going to need you to accompany us back to the Ministry so we can get you some protection."


	6. Another Fright

A/N: Please review. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

"Okay Potter, what happened up there?" Harry recounted what happened and when he finished Flynn was pacing around the room and everyone looked troubled.

Flynn looked up, "Well this isn't good. Ulaha says that Ernie didn't see anything, although it seems as though he was Confunded, Ulaha's performing Legilimency on him now. Jericho says that the body disappeared so we can't get any information from him now, not even his identity, although the guy that he looks like is in St. Mungo's so we can question him when he wakes up from his coma. One of the Healers was murdered, it is suspected that it was because she knew too much but on the bright side, it looks like we're getting somewhere. Oh and we have the other Healer under security as a precaution. She's already given us her memory of what happened and Mr. Potter is letting us borrow his Pensieve." He nodded at Harry in thanks. "The pensieve is being kept in the Ministry. I don't even know where. Only Mr. Potter and the Minister. They're getting worried out there.

It's been a long day. Why don't all of you head on home and we'll pick up here tomorrow." Flynn then turned and walked out swiftly.

Everyone got ready to leave and in the bustle, Harry heard one of the Aurors say "We haven't had this much excitement since we rounded up a bunch of Death Eaters just after Potter defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." He turned to look at them angrily.

"You find disappearances and murders exciting?" Harry demanded from them. "You enjoy seeing people suffer as you investigate?" The room had gone quiet, everyone listening. People still liked to listen to Harry when he talked.

"You do too. Otherwise why are you here?" One of them shot back. He wasn't counting on Harry having an answer.

"So I can help people, reunite families. Take care of others."

"I'm sure you'd feel differently if it wasn't one of your own friends who had disappeared. Bah. A mudblood. Why are we even-" He didn't get any farther than that as Harry had pulled out his wand and had pointed it straight at the man's nose.

"You were saying?"

"I - I. I'm sorry, I didn't - I wasn't..."

"Good."

Flynn came running over, apparently someone had gone to get him. "What's going on here? Huh! Get your wand away from his face Potter! Kolo! Get up! Explain." Harry had never seen him look so angry but that didn't stop him from being angry as well and it was with a huge effort that he lowered his wand and put it back in his pocket.

"It was nothing," said Kolo. "Nothing at all. Just a friendly disagreement."

Harry snorted. "Yeah right. Sure." He turned to Flynn. "He and his buddy were talking about how this whole thing is just a barrel of laughs and that we were just wasting our time looking for Hermione. He also called her a mudblood."

Flynn nodded for a second, looking at Kolo. "Kolo, get out."

"What sir?" Kolo stared at him in shock.

"I said, get out. What part of that don't you understand."

"But sir, I'm the best Auror you got."

"I don't want you on this team if you're going to be like that. It's just stupid. You' re suspended."

"But sir - I.," he turned to Harry angrily, "It's all your fault! You wait, you just wait!"

"Enough!" Flynn yelled. "And for threatening another Auror, you're suspended indefinitely. Now OUT!" Flynn was positively roaring now. "And the rest of you, I don't want to see you until tomorrow morning, eight o'clock. Potter, I want a word." He walked back to his desk.

Flynn waited until everyone had left before asking, "How are you finding this case? Are you dealing with it okay?" His tone was gentler, if Harry had not just seen him lose his temper, he would have though that the guy had been totally relaxed, even sleeping all day.

"I'm fine sir. I'm sorry about that though. I just-"

"Don't worry about it." Flynn cut him off. "I don't like that word either. Is there anything I can do for you though?"

"No thank you sir."

"Atta boy, now go on home. I'll see you here tomorrow at eight." Harry nodded and walked out to the elevator and then to the main entrance where he entered the disapparation line-up. Upon his arrival home, he had come to the conclusion that something strange was going on in the Auror department. However, he shrugged it off as he walked into his house.

"I'm home," he called without much enthusiasm. He became a little worried though when answered. "Hello?" Harry started checking rooms, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, dining room, bedrooms. Nobody. He went back down to the living room where the fireplace was and took some floo powder out of the little container that rested on the mantle. Throwing it into the flames and sticking his head in, he said "Shell Cottage," and prayed that someone would be there.

"Oh, Harry! What are you doing here? What's wrong?" Mrs. Weasley asked hurriedly.

"Mrs. Weasley, are Ron and Ginny there?"

"No," she was starting to panic, he could tell. "Should they be? Why? Are they missing?"

"No, no. It's all right. I think I know where they are," Harry lied. He really didn't want to worry Mrs. Weasley any more than she was already worried. She really loved Hermione, thought of her as her second daughter. She had confided this to Harry after the battle with Voldemort.

"Harry, if something else is wrong, I want to know." She eyed him suspiciously.

Harry looked her straight in the eyes, wishing that he could tell her the truth, knowing she was strong but he really didn't want to tell her. It would tear her apart. He began to argue with himself, "She would want to know, this is important to her," "I can't tell her, it would rip her apart!," "She'd be upset at first but then she'd be happy you told her," "No, it'd scare her," "She's strong enough. She can take it." This last argument won out and it was with a heavy heart that he said "I can't find Ron or Ginny."

Mrs. Weasley gave a strangled gasp and Bill hurried in, pulling out his wand and asking what was wrong. Harry repeated the news. To his surprise however, Bill relaxed and put his wand away. "They might have just gone out. Have you checked for notes?"

Harry immediately began chastising himself and he said, "Oops. I'll go check now. Be right back." He walked around the house again, checking everywhere. Doors, tables, counters, walls. Nothing. Going back to the fireplace, he threw in some more floo powder and stuck his head in again. "Nope. No note."

"Well, what time are you usually home at?" Bill questioned.

"Another half hour." Harry replied, wondering why he was asking.

"In that case, they may've been planning to be home before you. Wait for half an hour and then floo back if they're still not there. We'll put the word out."

"You don't need to do that. They'll probably be here. I'm just getting paranoid," said Harry, feeling ridiculous. With that he withdrew his head and started pacing, watching the clock above the mantle. Five minutes . . . ten minutes . . . fifteen minutes. Harry's heart beat faster. Then with a crash, the front door swung open and a snarling Ginny entered, dragging Ron in behind her.

Ginny stopped at the sight of Harry who was beginning to feel angry about the fact that they had just left and that there had been no note. "Where were you?"

"_I _was chasing _him_. He led me all over Diagon Alley getting drunker everywhere he stopped." She was apparently very angry as well.

Ron just tried to get up from where Ginny had pushed him into a chair and when she wouldn't let him, he spoke angrily "I need to find Hermione."

"Not like that," Ginny snapped. "All that would happen is that they'd get you too. Then what use would you be?"

"I'd be more useful! I'd be - I'd be." Ron struggled to find something that he'd be useful for if he was captured. Then his gaze settled on Harry. "What are you doing here?" he snarled. "Why aren't you out there, looking for my fiancee?"

"We're working on it mate," Harry said.

"That's not good enough!" and Ron swung his fist at Harry's face. Harry felt it and fell backwards, pulling out his wand as he did.

"NO! ENOUGH!" Ginny shouted. There was no need. Harry had not pulled out his wand to curse Ron but to bind him with a strong silvery rope.

"Let me GO!" he pointed his finger at Harry. "You, you, I don't want to be in the same house. You don't care about Hermione do you? Hah! You cared about her when she could get you out of trouble, when she could help you but when she goes missing you just sit around, not looking for her at all. You don't CARE!"

Harry had had enough. "SHUT UP! Don't you ever say that to me again! How could you say that I don't care! I've been working on leads all day! And what have you been doing? Going in to bars and getting drunk until they threw you out?" This was low. Harry knew Ron couldn't actually be out there and as soon as he said it he felt guilty.

"Is that the way you see it Mr. I - get - everything - because - I'm - Harry - Fucking - Potter. You only get into the Auror department because you're you. What about the rest of us? The people who actually have to work to get what they want? Eh?"

"I thought you would have learned by now that I hate being famous. I thought you got over that in fourth year."

"You though wrong then! Now let me go. I want to find someone who'll do something and actually find Hermione." Harry had no choice but to let him go. As Ron walked towards the door, he called over his shoulder, "And I won't be seeing you," and then he slammed the door behind him.


	7. Surprise!

A/N: Please review. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry could only stare at the door in shock after Ron left and only Ginny could have gotten him to move, which she did. "I didn't really mean it," he said to her shakily.

"I know. He can be really stubborn sometimes." Ginny said, massaging Harry's shoulders. "He'll realize that you're doing everything you can soon enough. He's just worried. We all are."

Harry sighed. "I know." Then he sat up straight and gasped. "That's it!" and he ran into the kitchen to owl Flynn.

"_Flynn, _

_I think I know what happened at the Ministry. Is there a way that we can get together to talk?_

_Harry Potter."_

And he sealed the letter with a charm to make sure that no one else could read it. It was still risky to send information by owl from Auror to Auror as many people wanted to know what the great Harry Potter was writing to someone and who he was writing to. Even if it was classified information.

"Harry, what IS it?" Ginny had been trying to get an answer out of him for the past few minutes while he got everything he needed to write the letter.

"I'm sorry Ginny but I can't say right now. I need to tell Flynn though."

"Is it about the case?"

"Yeah. And I think it'll help." Ginny eyed him sceptically.

"Okay."

Harry paced around the house for ten minutes before the owl returned with a letter tied to her beak. "Thanks," he said as he took the letter and stroked her for a second. Then she took flight to go hunting for the night and he opened the letter to read:

"_Mr. Potter,_

_Go to Tillman's Bar, we can go somewhere close to that. Meet me there in half an hour._

_Flynn."_

Excited, Harry went to change into muggle clothing knowing that the bar was a muggle building. "Ginny, I'm going to meet Flynn at Tillman's Bar, then we're going somewhere else so we can talk without being overheard!" Harry shouted to her down the stairs.

"Alright, just be careful okay?" She looked at him, worried.

Harry jogged down the stairs and kissed her chastely on the lips. "I'll try to be home before midnight."

He heard Ginny sigh behind him as he left, running quickly down the front steps to the car in the drive. Ginny had asked him what the point was of having a car when they could apparate anywhere and Harry had just said that he didn't really know but it may come in handy to have a car and it was certainly handy now.

Harry started it up and backed out of the driveway, checking pointlessly for other drivers. No one really came this way, the house that he shared with Ginny was the only one around there, they had chosen to get one a little away from any village, city or town just because they sometimes had strange guests coming in and they wouldn't want the muggles wondering what was going on and then investigating.

Harry arrived at the bar about five minutes early and went inside to wait. It was smoky and filled with shouts and laughter and some threats against people trying to get at their wives/husbands. Most of the people there were very drunk and Harry just managed to jump out of the way as a body came hurtling towards him. As he got up from where he had fallen, the bouncer called over the crowd "Sorry! Just trying to get the rowdy ones outta here! You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks." Harry said.

"You wouldn't happen to be Mr. Potter would you?" The bouncer asked.

"Er, actually I am." Harry replied wondering how the bouncer knew him.

The bouncer grinned at his confusion. "A guy came in here and told me to tell a Mr. Potter to meet him in the back. Then he told me that the guy was skinny but muscular, had glasses, a lightening bolt shaped scar and good enough reflexes that he would be able to jump out of the way of a flying body without any notice." The bouncer couldn't hold in his laughter any longer. "And he was right too! Sorry about that again. Anyways, Fly- er, the guy's back here." Harry followed him through the crowd of people to a door that was marked 'Staff Only'. The bouncer nodded at the door and said, "Have a nice night my friend," before turning around and walking away.

Harry entered the room and saw Flynn standing on the other side. He began to walk towards him when Flynn spoke, "Good evening Potter."

Harry stopped and looked around more carefully. There was something wrong but he couldn't figure out what it was. Then he realized it. The bouncer had been transfigured! Harry thought he had looked vaguely familiar. He had been one of the guys on the train! "Sir, the bouncer! He's one of the men who were on the train!"

"Don't worry Harry, we've got it all under control. Now what's your theory to what happened in the Ministry?"

"The man that Jericho, Ulaha and I saw on the way to do the description was the real guy but someone created a distraction downstairs and when the Healers let go, someone could have grabbed some hair or something and drank polyjuice potion. The Healers disapparated with him - the one who took the potion - and the other guy came back upstairs to warn me." Harry thought he heard someone shift behind one of the many boxes and crates that were stacked around the room but dismissed it as Flynn could easily see the part of it that Harry couldn't.

"Very well done Potter. I admit that we didn't think you'd get this far on your own," said Flynn as he raised his wand.

Harry jumped to the side, drawing his wand as he did, just in time having just heard the door behind him open. With a yell, he turned and fired a curse at the bouncer who had almost hit him with one of his own. While the bouncer's face was swelling, Harry got up and turned to make a run for it but found Kolo blocking his way. "Hello Potter," he snarled, "So nice to see you." Harry cast a quick shield charm and it just blocked the curse Kolo fired at him.

Harry ran back towards the bouncer, getting around him easily as his face was swelling more and more and then dodged curses sent at him by Flynn and Kolo.

"Get him! Deimos wants revenge!" Harry stumbled out the door and cast Colloportus on it to temporarily stop them. Next, he went out to the street and was just about to apparate when he was stunned from behind.


	8. Hermione

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry woke up and the first thing he noticed was that he was lying on something cold and hard. Probably made of stone. His next thoughts were of Flynn and were filled with anger that even though Voldemort was gone, there were still infiltrations at the Ministry. He rolled over and groaned, one of his ribs were probably broken.

"Who's that?" A scared and very familiar voice asked.

"Hermione?" Harry said faintly, "Is that you?"

"Harry? Oh Harry! Goodness! Are you all right? You don't sound too good."

"I'm fine. I'm more worried about you. Are you okay?" Harry asked, getting gently to his feet. His wand was gone of course but he listened for Hermione's voice and walked towards where he thought she was.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Her voice was coming from almost right in front of him and he reached out gently. "Ouch, is that you?"

"Yeah. Just wanted to know where you were," and Harry hugged her, glad that she was alive.

"How very touching," a voice sneered in the darkness. Suddenly a lamp was lit and Harry blinked.

"Kolo," he spat. "You're a filthy two-faced bastard." Harry controlled his voice as a shaking Hermione clung to him.

"I'll be back in ten minutes to put the light out. Enjoy seeing until then," and he walked away with a small spring in his step.

Harry looked down at Hermione and gasped slightly. She really didn't look too good. She had bruises covering both eyes and a deep gash down her cheek. Her robes were ripped and torn, and she was missing a sleeve and her arm, where Harry could see it, was covered in blood. "Oh Hermione, what have they done to you?" He asked softly.

Hermione smiled grimly. "Nothing too bad. I didn't come quietly enough for them though. They just gave me a few scratches and used the Cruciatus Curse on me a few times. Strangely enough, they didn't use it as many times as Bellatrix . . . and it didn't hurt as much either." The last part, she said in a whisper as if talking about it would make it happen all over again.

Harry couldn't really think of much to say so he just held her. "What happened that night anyway?"

"I was talking to Ron and then he said that he'd go and get us drinks. Then it was silent and I looked to see what happened. These two Death Eaters were there and one of them blasted the house and everyone ran. As they were running, the other one grabbed me and took my wand - or disarmed me, I'm really not sure which. I struggled but he wouldn't let go and the last thing I saw inside the house was Ron being slammed back against the wall.

"The other Death Eater was shooting spells backwards as the Death Eater that had grabbed me kept pulling me closer to the end of the anti-apparation boundary. I heard yelling and curses were flying past us but that's all I remember. What happened after I left?"

"I had gone outside to talk to Professor McGonagall and then we heard a bang, a scream and everyone was running out of the house. Ginny was yelling at me that they had grabbed you and I started running around the house. I was quickly joined by quite a few others. We didn't get a good aim and we had only just gotten around the corner so we could fire some good curses when you disapparated. We were pissed. I informed the Auror Department and after a few quick questions, the Aurors sent everyone elsewhere and we started a formal investigation. I've only just discovered that Flynn, Kolo and one of Kolo's friends are escaped Death Eaters. I can't believe that the Ministry is still infiltrated with those idiots." Harry finished angrily.

Hermione was about to reply when Kolo reentered. "Time to turn out the lights," he said smirking, "I hope you're not afraid of the dark." He blew out the flame and started laughing and the light that was still coming in through the door disappeared as he left.

The two of them sat down, still holding hands as though they could give each other some much needed strength. "Harry . . . I just wanted to know . . . How's Ron?" Hermione asked timidly. She knew his temper all too well and was hoping that he didn't do anything too rash.

Harry laughed humourlessly and then answered, "He's really worried and really angry. And drunk at the moment. Or at least he was when I last saw him." As Harry told Hermione all about what had transpired between them, tears came to her eyes.

"You guys are such idiots! Always, when you two need to be closer than ever, you break apart. Oh how could this happen at a time like this?" She looked up at him imploringly. "Harry, I thought you'd learned."

"I have! He started it!" Harry felt the need to defend himself.

"But Harry, in a lot of ways, Ron hasn't grown up as much as you have. Sometimes it's as though he's still eleven or still living at home and expects everything to be handed to him or fixed for him. And I'll admit, his being drunk did not help matters."

"No, it didn't," said Harry. They sat in silence, Harry thinking about what everyone would do when he didn't return to Ginny. He knew that Hermione was thinking about Ron and wondered fleetingly what she would do to him when she next saw him. Exhaustion soon overcame Harry from the two days he had just had and from relief that Hermione was all right and he fell asleep, holding Hermione in his arms.


	9. Rude Awakenings

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry woke up the next morning to raucous laughter. He stirred and remembering what happened the previous night, became alert almost immediately. He didn't need to check and see if Hermione was still in his arms as she was just waking up, his arm was numb from her sleeping on it. Harry picked up the glasses which had fallen off while he slept and rammed them back onto his face. "What?" he said roughly to the Death Eater that had entered, only just recognizing him as one of the Death Eaters that had been in the forest when Voldemort had 'killed him'.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought that you shouldn't be allowed to sleep when the rest of us aren't." He then decided that a comment on their positions was relevant. "And my my. You two looked quite cozy there. Sorry to have disturbed you." He walked out the door, continuing his mad laughter and Harry was left slightly confused as to what was so funny.

"He does that every morning! And if he's too busy, he gets someone else to come in. And it's so difficult to get sleep here when you're frightened. Sleepless nights and then when you finally manage to get to sleep, they come in and wake you. Arrgh!" Harry let Hermione rant on, knowing that she had been wanting to say this for a couple of days now but hasn't been able to talk to anyone that wouldn't call her 'mudblood'.

"Hermione, just relax. I'll make sure you get some sleep tonight. If you want, you can go back to sleep now." Harry suggested.

Hermione shook her head, "They come in and check to see if I'm still here every half hour. I'm sure they won't stop because you're here. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they checked every fifteen minutes instead. And as to what that has to do with my sleeping, they're not going to let me sleep then if they didn't this morning. I've already tried." She smiled at him tiredly.

Harry grunted. "Are there any chances of escape?" Hey, he had to be optimistic sometimes didn't he?

"None as far as I can tell." Hermione replied. Harry gave up for the moment right then and there. After two days if Hermione hadn't found a way to escape then no one would. As if she had read his mind, she said "But don't give up, keep looking. Who knows? Maybe there's something I missed." Harry highly doubted this but decided it would be wiser not to say anything.

"Wait a second! I just remembered. I still have the piece of Sirius's mirror! Do you think Aberforth still has his mirror?" Harry asked excited.

"He might," said Hermione doubtfully. "But it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Why do you still have that anyway?" She asked seeing his moleskin pouch.

"You should always be prepared Hermione," Harry smirked at her. "Besides, I just like to have some things with me at all times." He pulled out the mirror and looked into it hoping that Aberforth had not put his away thinking that it was unneeded now that the war was over. "Aberforth? Aberforth Dumbledore?" Harry waited for a minute and then tried again. Nothing happened. Frustrated, he was about to chuck it at the wall but was stopped by Hermione's hand gripping his arm.

"Harry, he might not have it out _now_. He might later though. Don't throw away our last apparent hope." Harry lowered his arm and put the piece back into the pouch knowing she was right. She had a good track record anyway.

They had just settled down and started to talk about what everyone was likely to be doing at this point when the door opened. Sure enough it was fifteen minutes since the first Death Eater had come in. "Good to see you're still here," said the Death Eater with a smirk. Harry really hated that smirk.

"Do you people always need to smirk? I mean, can't you frown or actually smile or something?" Harry said angrily.

The Death Eater snarled now and his snarl wasn't much nicer than his smirk. "Don't get smart Potter. Deimos wants to see you alive and when we get him word, he'll be here as soon as he can be. Then you'll pay for what you did to our master." With that, he swept out the door and closed it with a bang.

"Harry! What were you trying to do? Get tortured?!" Hermione said angrily. "Don't do anything or they'll make you regret it. I'm serious, try to keep your anger down!"

"Are we supposed to just take whatever they say sitting down?" Harry retorted.

"Yes. Because they have wands and we don't. And they're not afraid to use curses that we wouldn't use in desperate situations!" Her voice wavered slightly but she didn't back down. "I just don't want to see you get hurt again."

She was looking at him in earnest and Harry had no choice but to reply, "I'll try Hermione. I'll try." He sighed and sat down, facing the door.

"Thank you, Harry. I just can't lose you now that you're here. You understand that right?" Harry nodded and she too sighed and sat down, also facing the door.

"So what are you planning on doing when we get out of here?" Harry asked to get rid of the silence.

"You know, we might not get out of here," Hermione reminded him.

"Sure we will. But it doesn't really matter. I know you've given a lot of thought about it."

"Well I was thinking of going back to Hogwarts for seventh year. After Ron finishes his training and becomes a full time Auror of course. I need to keep my job right now for the income. Then I was thinking that I might try to do more with S.P.E.W. Or for any magical creature really. A lot of them are treated really unfairly. What about you? Are you happy with being an Auror?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm just really angry about Death Eaters still existing in the Ministry. But I wanted to become Head of the Auror Department. Kingsley is going to have to find a new one anyway now that Flynn is a Death Eater. Not that he knows or anything," said Harry glumly.

"I know. It's really unfair. They're evil to everyone. People, mostly muggle-borns but it doesn't matter, and creatures. Look at how they treated Dobby and Kreacher."

Hermione stopped speaking at the look on Harry's face. "Harry? Are you okay? Harry?"

Harry was gaping at her as if she'd grown two heads or something. "Hermione, that's it! Kreacher! He can get us out of here!"


	10. Deimos

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in awhile but I wasn't feeling great and I've been busy with physio and homework. I'm back now though.

I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry's excitement was short lived however as a Death Eater entered. "Stand up, quickly. I haven't got all day." If Harry's excitement must have been transferred when the Death Eater entered as he seemed excited about something himself. "Let's go!" He said to them, a little rougher now. The Death Eater - after opening the door that he had closed behind him when he walked in to get them up - directed them down a long ornately decorated hall with prods from his wand at their backs.

While he was busy muttering to himself about blood traitors and unworthy mudbloods, Harry looked around him, wanting to know the house as well as he could when he planned their escape. The walls were painted a dark blood red with gold flowers painted on the bottom half, their stems also gold. Dividing the top from the bottom of the wall was a long line of dark wood. If Harry had to say what wood it was, he would have said oak. The walls were adorned with paintings and tapestries depicting battle scenes. Most of them were bloody and Harry realized with a jolt that someone had used real blood for the blood in each of the scenes. He tore his attention from the paintings and looked up. The ceiling was high up and every few yards was a gold chandelier, the lit candles flickering as if a light wind was passing through. They went down a flight of stairs and Harry saw that this floor was decorated in the Slytherin colours, although he couldn't imagine why _any _floor in this house would be decorated anywhere close to Gryffindor if there were Death Eaters here.

"In here," said the Death Eater. "You don't want to keep Deimos waiting. He always knows." With that, Harry and Hermione entered the room. The walls were painted red on the top, the same blood red as the floor above, but with dark panelling on the bottom half of the wall. All the furniture in the room - which included a couch, several side tables, a crackling fireplace, a large ornate desk with snakes decorating the sides and a chair to match with snakes for armrests (uh, wooden snakes), a bookcase that took up the entire wall to their left, and a green plant in a corner - was oak and very highly polished. There were also lamps all around the room, each with a snake or two depicted somewhere on it.

"Welcome," said a voice and Harry spun on the spot, hand going reflexively to where he usually kept his wand. Remembering that it had been taken, Harry let his hand drop. Hermione had grabbed onto his left shirt sleeve and was clutching it, terrified. A tall man with dark black hair turned on the spot to face them and Hermione gasped beside him. Harry himself was trying not to give away his shock. The man's face, while it may have been handsome once, was nowhere near that now. It was covered in scars and what looked like melted skin. As if he had been in a fire. "Please, sit down."

Harry didn't move and neither did Hermione. She seemed to be following his lead and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing. He didn't want her tortured anymore than she had been. "No thank you." Harry said finally, ice in his voice.

"Very well. Now, Harry Potter," the man apparently called Deimos walked to one of the tables and poured himself a glass of what looked like brandy. Suddenly he started laughing. "The great and noble Harry Potter. How pleased I am to finally meet you face to face. I admit that while the Dark Lord hunted you and planned for you demise, I was very curious about you. I wondered how you kept evading the Dark Lord when anyone he wanted dead was usually dead the next day." He took a sip of brandy and looked at Harry who felt as though he was being x-rayed. Quickly, he closed his mind, relaxed and used occlumency. Deimos looked slightly taken aback for a moment and then continued, "When I heard about the prophecy finally, I was stunned."

"How did you hear of the prophecy?" Harry interrupted. "No one, even today, has heard the full prophecy except for six people."

The man grinned. "Oh, I heard it all right. I was one of the Dark Lord's secrets. You see, I was a wizard in an orphanage just like the Dark Lord was once. One day, when we were on a trip, He found me. He told me what I was, for of course, I had no idea. I didn't believe him at first but then he showed me some of the things he could do. Simple things at the time but I thought they were fantastic. Then he told me that he was looking for boys like me. Boys who would do well with power, boys who already had a large amount of power even before eleven. You may be surprised, but many wizards and witches before and at the age of eleven do not have a strong power. Sure, they may have control over the power they do have, but they haven't done anything extraordinary. The Dark Lord told me that I was one of these select few boys. He took me under his wing, took me from the orphanage, which I hated so it didn't matter and taught me how to use the power. When I got my Hogwarts letter, he didn't let me go. Instead, he taught me everything I needed to know and more." Deimos smiled easily and sat down on the chair.

"That doesn't explain how you know the prophecy," said Hermione.

"True, true. It doesn't. I have a friend down in the Department of Mysteries. Or had a friend down there, I should say. The Dark Lord did not introduce me to many people. He wanted a secret weapon and here I was, ready, loyal and waiting. Strong in the Dark Arts, powerful and, best of all, I knew my place. I followed orders strictly not to be seen and so I was not. I went down to the Department of Mysteries and met someone. A Professor Trelawney who had been trying to find out if her great-great-great grandmother had any prophecies left there. I talked to her and got her talking about being a seer and I looked into her mind, saw what she did not remember and came here."

"If this is true, why didn't you tell Voldemort the full contents of the prophecy?" Harry asked.

Deimos looked at them in surprise and possibly anger for a second and finally said, "I did."

Harry and Hermione frowned and looked at each other. "But he didn't know, he didn't know any of the end."

"Of course he did. He knew everything. Oh, and by the way, my name is Deimos. That way, you have a name to curse when you scream." He pointed his wand at the door and there was a bang followed closely by a squeal.

"So you just come in here, talk to us, brag to us about how there's someone to step up for Voldemort and then torture us?"

"Of course not. No, this time you're going to die. And I will have accomplished something my mentor never did." Hermione gripped Harry's arm now instead of just the sleeve, she had obviously thought that they were going to get out of there alive. Harry had had doubts since the door had shut behind them.

"You can't do this!" Hermione finally said in sheer desperation.

"Can't I? I know you've been involved in this for a long time as well and I thought you were the smart one. Tell me, when did you start thinking the world was full of good people again? Of people who wouldn't do this? Did you not realize perhaps that Death Eaters still roamed the world, lost without their beloved master, waiting for someone to lead them again? Good bye mudblood." And with that, he walked out of the room, Atticus Flynn entering has soon as he straightened up from his bow.


	11. The Strange House

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry began looking around frantically for a weapon, any weapon, even hoping that Flynn was somewhat like Bellatrix and liked to play with his prey before killing it. He turned out to be right.

"_Crucio!_" He shouted and Harry fell to the ground where he stood as white hot knives were thrust into his body all over. Flynn paused, letting Harry get up, and smirked. "Potter, Potter. I hate you. You show us all up and give all of us Aurors a bad name because you've accomplished so much. You know how annoying it is to always listen to praise for The Boy-Who-Lived? It gets on our nerves like nothing else!" He now mimicked other people, "Why haven't you done _this_ yet?", "I'm sure that _Harry Potter_ would have figured it out by now! Well I'm sick of it! _Crucio!_" And once again Harry collapsed in pain. He could hear Hermione whimpering in the corner and prayed that she would go unnoticed but there was no such luck. Abruptly, the curse was lifted from him and he sat up, panting and looked over to Hermione who was moving slowly backwards, eventually hitting the solid bookcase.

"Aw, look at the little mudblood. Scared of the big, bad wizard dear?" Flynn sniggered and raised his wand , "Cru-"

"No!" Harry yelled and threw himself at Flynn. He could still hear her screams at night from being tortured by Bellatrix and he knew she never wanted to go through that again. For not running, he thought of her as extremely brave once again.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed as a loud bang went off and a jet of purple light streaked toward the ceiling.

Harry wasn't listening to her though, he was concentrating on keeping the wand pointed away from himself and Hermione, while muggle fighting with Flynn. "Where are our wands?" He demanded of Flynn. "Where are they you filthy, no good, piece of -" Flynn's fist hit him in the side of the head and Harry flew to the side. Flynn came charging at him, all thoughts of wands forgotten.

"Come here, Potter! I want to kill you with my bare hands!" Flynn screamed and Harry just managed to roll to the side before Flynn stomped on him.

They continued to struggle for another few moments when a thin, slightly shaking voice said "Stop. Stop now or I'll kill you." Harry and Flynn broke apart, breathing heavily and looked at Hermione who had Flynn's wand pointed at Flynn with a look of disgust on her face. "Now, answer the question, where are our wands?" She demanded.

Flynn snarled at being ordered what to do by a mudblood and took a threatening step toward her. Hermione simply watched him, daring him to take another step. Harry got ready to throw himself at Flynn again even though he was sure that was unnecessary. Hermione wasand remained to be, one of the brightest witches of her age and with what she had been through, Harry was sure she wouldn't mind cursing Flynn much.

"They-they're in that drawer." Flynn answered her, his voice shaking slightly. Harry crossed the room and tried to open the drawer. It was locked.

"Hermione, the drawer's locked." Hermione walked backwards over to Harry and moved the wand so it was pointing at the drawer while watching Flynn to make sure that he didn't make any sudden moves.

"_Alohomora,_" she said and the drawer opened to reveal a long, thin, black box and when Harry opened it, he found that it contained his and Hermione's wands. He wondered for a second why they had been so easy to get to, although he supposed that Deimos had figured that Flynn would get rid of them quickly and without fuss. He handed Hermione's wand to her and held his own up to point at Flynn too. Hermione exchanged the wand she was holding for her own and spoke again to Flynn, "Don't move even a slight bit or we'll both curse you." Together, they backed to the door and opened it easily without needing to unlock it. Harry began to feel uneasy.

"Hermione," he started, "Don't you think that was a bit too easy?"

"Definitely. But we just need to get out of here." They walked down the hallway until they came to a dead end. Looking around, they found a door to the left and walked through it, Harry going first. The stairs were covered in a thick layer of dust as though no one had been down there in awhile, which muffled their footsteps.

At the bottom of the stairs, the room was deserted and Harry looked back at Hermione who, while still looking nervous, nodded her head, silently telling him that she was all right. Leading the way to the door, Harry couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched and he turned and threw himself at Hermione to push them out of the way just as an Avada Kedavra spell was shot at them. Harry blindly sent a curse back at them and heard a muffled shout as he hit the target. Pulling Hermione up, he said to her "We need to get out of here, now!" And he pushed her through the door.

Now they were in a long yellow and black corridor, as if decorated in celebration of Hufflepuff. Harry found his incredibly strange. No Death Eater really liked Hufflepuffs, they thought they were weak. What kind of house were they in? Harry found no time to think of that now and he pulled Hermione down the hall and to the main stair case which they had gone down earlier and went farther down, stopping at the last landing. Throwing open the door, hoping it would lead to the way out, he was greeted with bookcases. Many, many bookcases that reached the ceiling. Each of them were full of books, many of which looked as if they hadn't been touched in a long time. Hermione gasped behind him and he turned quickly to make sure that she was okay. "It's a library." Then Hermione frowned as she saw how the room was decorated. It was in the same fashion that the others were, but this room was covered in blue and bronze. Ravenclaw. Harry's eyes widened, his mind working furiously when Hermione spoke again.

"Harry, over there. There's a window." Harry made his way over to the window on the opposite side of the room with Hermione following him. When they reached it, they looked out and found themselves to be on the highest floor of a huge house. The front door was within sight which at least mean that all they had to do was figure out how to get to the bottom. Harry looked at Hermione, confused, but Hermione looked excited. She grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him back toward the door and then started up the stairs.

"Hermione, we're on the top floor, why are we going . . ." Harry's voice trailed off as he realized what he had been about to say. They were going up but they were on the highest floor. This meant that the floor at the top of the stairs would be at ground level. As they went up, Harry checked behind them to make sure that no one was following them or had heard all the noise and decided to investigate. They reached the top unnoticed and followed the long, Gryffindor hallway to a door on the other end. Bursting through it, they saw a lawn of grass, trees and shrubs and began to run.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione called to him as he slowed to turn around and watch the house. Harry stepped backwards but continued to watch the house. "Harry, come on! We need to get out of here!" She tugged on his arm, pulling him out of his reverie and he continued running, holding onto Hermione so they weren't separated. Soon, they reached the edge of the lawn and the only thing separating them from freedom was a tall, spiked gate. "Oh, now what?" Hermione moaned.

It was then that Harry noticed how weak she looked. And then he realized that no food had been given to them while he had been there. He looked at Hermione and pointed his wand at her, "_Wingardium Leviosa._"

"Harry, Harry, what're you? Oh," Harry dropped her gently on the other side of the gate as a green light soared right through where she had just been in the air. Harry spun around quickly and sent a Stunning Spell at the Death Eater who was chasing them. Behind him, Harry could see several more Death Eaters charging out of the house after them. He wondered briefly where they had been when the fights between himself, Hermione and the other Death Eaters had been fighting and making all that noise.

Spells shot past him, both ways but without turning, he yelled to Hermione "Go! Get out of here! I can handle it!" When she tried to argue, he lost his temper. "HERMIONE, GET OUT OF HERE!" And with that burst of adrenalin, he blasted the gate open and the Death Eater he had been battling with flew backwards. Harry sprinted through the gate and disapparated as soon as he knew Hermione had disapparated herself and he felt himself pass through the anti-apparation boundaries.


	12. Safe at Last

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry looked around Shell Cottage, hoping that it was where Hermione had disapparated to. No such luck although a breathless Mrs. Weasley ran out of the house, eyes red from crying and grabbed Harry into a bone-crunching hug.

"Harry! Oh, Harry!" She pulled out of the hug to look at him and he saw tears running down her face before she pulled him back in for another hug, "Harry, we've all been so worried! I'm so glad you're safe now. Are you hurt? Hungry? Can I get you something?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she led him inside.

"No, no I'm fine," Harry said. He would have loved something to eat but he had to make sure that Hermione was safe, that Ron was safe as he was sure that Ron would have done something rash by now and to make sure that the Ministry knew that Atticus Flynn, Kolo, and a couple other Ministry employees were still Death Eaters. And to inform them that Voldemort even had his own protege. "Has Hermione been by?" He asked.

"Hermione? Why would she-? You found her? Oh Merlin," Mrs. Weasley turned around and yelled "Arthur! Harry's here and he found Hermione!"

Arthur Weasley came running, "Hermione? Where is she?" He was looking at his wife and Harry, wanting an answer.

"She's not here. Oh I hope she hasn't run into any more trouble." Mrs Weasley looked worried. "Harry dear, I hope you find her."

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley. Me too. But I need to go and search for her if that's going to happen. But have you seen Ron by any chance?"

"No, should I have? The last time I saw him was when he going in to the Ministry for questioning. Is something wrong dear?"

"No Mrs. Weasley, it's nothing. It's just that we got into a bit of an argument and I'm just hoping that he hasn't done anything rash. I really must go and find Hermione though. Can I send her here when I do? She needs to be taken care of, fed and she has some nasty cuts and bruises and I would rather she came here than go to St. Mungo's or the Ministry right now."

"Of course, Harry. Send her right over. I'll go and get some food ready. And I'll talk to Fleur about getting a bed made up." With that, Mrs. Weasley bustled away hurriedly looking for Fleur.

Mr. Weasley turned to Harry though "Harry, do you need any help?"

"No, thank you Mr. Weasley. I have a good idea of where Hermione is and I'm sure I can find Ron easily enough." Harry turned and walked past the anti-apparation charm and apparated to the house he shared with Ginny. He walked up the front, into the house as quickly as possible and his instinct turned out to be correct. There on the couch was Hermione, her knees drawn to her chest and when Harry walked in, she gave a start.

"Oh Harry, thank Merlin it's you. I've been so worried!" Hermione got up and ran to him. "I thought the Death Eater's got you for sure and I'm so sorry I left but I couldn't take it anymore and I was so tired and now I feel so helpless-"

"Shh Hermione, it's alright. You're safe now. You just need to be cleaned up, get some food in you and get some rest. I thought you might have gone to Shell Cottage so I went there first and I talked to Mrs. Weasley. She's getting some food ready for you right now and once you're there and eating, I'm sure she'll be getting a bed ready too. Unless she's already got Fleur doing that. So why don't you go over there and get some rest? They're all dying to see you too."

"Oh Harry, thank you so much. You've done so much for me. Do you know where . . ."

"No, I don't," said Harry gently. "I'm going to look for him as soon as I make sure you're at Shell Cottage. When I find him, I'll send him right over. Ginny too. Come on. I don't know if you're strong enough to do apparation by yourself?" Hermione shook her head so Harry side-along apparated her to the cottage and led her inside where she was immediately embraced by Mrs. Weasley and everyone crowded around her.

Now Harry walked away, contemplating where he should start looking for Ron and Ginny. They were probably targeted now that he and Hermione had escaped. Harry was sure that they wanted Hermione now just because she had escaped from them and they didn't like that. He apparated to Ron and Hermione's apartment and started looking around. It was all quiet until a voice came from right behind him, "What do you want?"

Harry spun around, cursing himself for being so off guard. "Ron?"

"Of course it's me. And I asked you a question. What do you want?" Ron's voice grew angrier.

"Ron, Hermione's safe. She's with your family," Harry said carefully, not wanting to give too much away if this wasn't Ron after all.

Immediately Ron's eyes lightened and sparked and he looked happier again. As if everything in the world was right. "She is? Is she okay?"

"She's fine. A little underfed, some cuts and bruises, and she needs some rest. She'll recover nicely though." Ron looked very relieved. "Are you going to go see her now?"

"Yeah. But I'm going to stop at Diagon Alley first and get her some flowers or a book or something."

"I don't think that's such a good idea. The gesture is good but the Death Eaters who took her are pretty upset that she got away I'm guessing and they'll target Merlin knows next. It'd be better off if you went straight to her. That way she knows you're safe as well." Harry said this as gently as he could, not wanting Ron to get the wrong idea.

Ron just looked at Harry for a second and then said "I'm sorry. I was such a jerk. I know you were doing everything you could to find her but I was just so scared of what I would do without her. I was lost. And completely drunk at the time too."

Harry nodded in understanding, "That's okay. We were all a little on edge. And I'm sorry for what I said to you as well. I didn't mean it."

"Thanks Harry." Ron walked out of the room quickly and Harry heard the front door of the apartment close with an excited 'slam' and he smiled. Ron was okay too. Now, he just had to find Ginny.

Harry followed behind Ron until he was in an alley near the apartment and sure that no one was watching before apparating back to the house he shared with Ginny. He walked into the front room silently, not wanting to alert anyone to his presence yet in case someone in the house was unfriendly to say the least. "_Homenum Revelio_" Harry cast quietly. The spell revealed someone upstairs but friend or foe, he couldn't tell. He made his way up the stairs one by one, trying to avoid the ones that squeaked and then he reached the landing and made his way down, checking rooms on the way.

The first room he checked was empty, as was the second and third. He reached the bedroom and found someone seated on the bed, hunched over and sobbing. Pointing his wand at the person, he said "Ginny?"

The figure turned quickly and gasped "Harry? Oh, HARRY!" and threw herself into his arms. He held her while she sobbed until he heard a faint noise downstairs. He shushed Ginny gently, gesturing for her to listen which she did. There it was again, a creak as the person stepped on a loose floorboard and then silence and no movement as if the person would rather not be discovered.

"Wait here," Harry told Ginny and she nodded instead of arguing like he thought she would. He started creeping down the hallway, pointing his wand down, over the railing so he would be ready to curse the person if they were noticed. He made it to the stairs and just got a glimpse of somebody as they went to check out the family room. He crept silently down the stairs and entered the family room himself only to come face-to-face with a wand. "What are _you _doing here?"


	13. Malfoy?

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

The other man looked up and grinned. "Harry Potter. Just the person I wanted to see," Draco Malfoy said. Then he sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm in trouble though and I thought maybe you could help me."

"Why me? You hate me. And that doesn't explain why you were creeping around my house like you didn't want to be seen or heard," Harry replied.

"Well I came to you because-because. I have no place else to go. I don't want to involve my mother in this Potter and I thought you would help me. Because you know me. If you don't want to help me, then I'll leave," said Draco and he started towards the door.

"No, wait. I'll help you. I just want to know why you came here of all places. And I want to know why you were roaming around the house."

Draco turned back to Harry and said, "Please, don't ask me any questions. Can I stay here though?"

"Just a moment," said Harry and he turned to the stairs and called up, "Ginny, can you come down here please?" Turning back to Draco he asked "Will you at least explain why you need to hide?"

"Well, I imagine that you know who Deimos is by now what with that mu- with Granger disappearing and whatever and he's. Well - he's kindofafterme," said Draco, ending in a rush.

Then Ginny walked in. "Harry what's going -" She looked at Draco and continued, "What is _he _doing here?" She demanded angrily.

"That's what I'm trying to find out. But I've already told him that he can stay." At Ginny's look, Harry explained. "He came to me and I'm going to help him any way I can. I'd rather him come here then go somewhere else and be influenced badly."

"Hmpf. I'll go and get a room ready." She rounded on Draco, "No funny stuff got it? No calling anyone mudblood, blood traitor or anything else. I still can't believe we're putting up with you." She stormed off, leaving Harry and Draco looking at each other.

"Sorry about that," Harry said. He saw Malfoy roll his eyes. "Now, what was that you said before Ginny came in?"

"I said that Deimos is after me. He doesn't like the fact that the Dark Lord was defeated and he wants to create a new army. A stronger one. And he wants me in it because I failed so badly before. He's gone after my father too and I don't know where he went but I think he got away."

"What about your mother?"

"She's staying with Andromeda. She explained that she saw the error of her ways to her and all that and she's trying to soothe things over. I told her that I'd find somewhere else. She wasn't too happy but I don't want to put her or Aunt Andromeda in any more danger." Harry nodded. That made sense. Even for Malfoy.

"Okay. When did you leave and where is all your stuff?" Harry asked.

"My stuff?" Draco blushed. "I was kind of in a rush to get out of there. I left yesterday after they attacked the manor."

"Well I need to get to the Ministry. Make yourself at home and behave. You're a guest, remember that," Harry warned. He knew Ginny could take care of herself and him too but he didn't mind threatening people if he thought they might say or do something to her.

Harry went upstairs to change back into wizard's robes and left the house to disapparate when Ginny came running from behind. "Harry!" She called to him. "Harry, why are we letting him stay with us?"

"He needs our help. The same man who ordered Hermione kidnapped is after him. He's after me too so be careful. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you."

"I know you'd behave more rationally than Ron," Ginny joked.

Harry smiled and leaned down to place a chaste kiss on her cheek but she moved her head at the last moment and captured him in a more passionate embrace. Harry broke away before he didn't want to leave, he _did_ have things to do.

"I'm just glad you're okay," Ginny whispered.

Harry stroked her hair for a second and then turned and walked to the edge of the boundary. "I love you," he said and then he disapparated.

As he arrived at the Ministry, he looked around, gathering himself. Then he started off to the Auror Department, hoping that he wasn't too late and hoping that he would be able to convince people that Flynn, and Kolo were Death Eaters. Finally entering the office, he looked around. It was empty. Completely empty. There were no people, no furniture and immediately Harry's mind began to race and his breath came out in short, quick gasps. Maybe they had had to make an escape before they were captured like he was. But that wasn't rational. Surely the rest of the Ministry would have noticed? He walked out trying to act as though everything was normal and then was greeted by Jericho.

"Hey Potter! Where've you _been_? Flynn's going crazy trying to find you too! And we think we may have a clue as to where your friend Hermione is," Jericho said.

"I've just been abducted that's all. What's this about Hermione? Where do you think she is?" It wasn't that Harry didn't trust Jericho, he just didn't want it getting around that Hermione was safe yet. If he did, Flynn would want her brought in and Harry didn't know what would happen to her then. "And where is everyone? And everything?"

"Oh, we've been moved a couple of floors. Sorry about that. Must have been quite a shock huh? Anyway, who were you abducted by and how did you get away?"

"Sorry Jericho but I can't tell you yet. But I promise, I will. Alright?"

"Yeah, yeah sure. Although I'm not sure that Flynn is going to like that answer very much." Harry followed Jericho to the new office and found everything there and Flynn it seemed had been waiting for Jericho to return before starting the briefing. At the sight of Harry, Flynn turned pale and his eyes widened. Harry just smiled at him and settled down behind his desk.

"Mr-Mr. Potter. How did you-I mean, where were-?" Flynn shook his head and stumbled backwards a step.

"Are you okay, sir? Asked Ulaha. He nodded to Jericho who left and came back with a glass of water. He handed it to Flynn who took it but didn't drink anything. He seemed to have gained some of his composure.

"Mr. Potter, where have you been? We've been worried about you. Our youngest Auror going missing on his third day on the job?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I'll be here from now on."

Flynn's eyes narrowed and Harry had to admit that he was a very good actor. One would think that he knew nothing of what had happened to Harry over the past day and a bit. "Potter, one of your friends goes missing, you take a day off of work, come back and expect me to just accept that answer? Well that's not going to work. I demand to know where you've been and what you've been doing."

"You ought to know sir. You are the one who took me there."

"What are you talking about Potter?" Flynn asked.

"I went to the bar like you told me to, so we could talk about my theory. I showed up and a bouncer directed me to the back, which was a storage room. I went in and told you my theory and you attacked me. You and Kolo. I managed to get outside of the anti-apparation jinx and was stunned from behind before I could disapparate." Harry's eyes narrowed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I never did tell you to go to a bar and I certainly didn't go to one. I was in a meeting with the Minister all bloody night. And if you think for one minute that I would be a Death Eater, you won't last very long in this Department."

Harry might have found this very convincing except for one little detail. "Flynn, the Minister was very busy that night wasn't he? Harry said pleasantly. "Being in two places at once must have been time consuming."

"What?" Flynn sounded panicked.

"I happen to know that the Minister was out at the time. He was at Mr. Weasley's for supper." Harry smiled. "How do you explain that now?" The other Aurors had been watching the two of them and now, all wore looks of amazement on their faces.

"I well-uh, oh you meant two nights ago? Haha, I thought you meant last night." Flynn tried to cover for himself.

"But the Minister was busy last night too Flynn," interrupted Ulaha. "You see, I invited him to see my son when he was born. He was born last night, remember?"

Noone said anything, they were all looking at Flynn and everyone knew that there would be time for congratulations later.

"Come on Flynn," said Harry. "Time's up. Let's go. First, let's see the Minister, just to give you a fair chance? Everyone deserves one of those right?" Harry pointed his wand at Flynn for the second time in a day and Flynn visibly gulped as every other Auror pulled out their wands, and Jericho took his. Harry let Flynn lead the way out and to the Minister's office, prodding him in the back every few feet.


	14. The Trial

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Sorry I haven't posted lately, but now that it's getting closer to exams and the end of the year, teachers have decided that they would like to kill us with assignments. I'm working on three assignments at the moment and I don't have enough time to write and post. Thanks for you patience though!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

"Minister, I was wondering if we could have a word with you," said Harry when he saw Kingsley in the hallway just outside his office.

"Sure Potter. I'll be with you in a moment." Kingsley turned back to the man he was talking to and excused himself, telling the man that he'd talk to him later. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I just have a couple of questions for you. Can we talk somewhere a little more private?"

"That's fine with me. This way." Harry followed him into the inner office and watched Kingsley as he walked around his desk and sat down behind it. "Now, fire away."

"Well, I'm sure you'd like to know why I haven't been coming in for the past couple of days," Harry started.

"I assure you that it crossed my mind," said Kingsley in his slow, deep voice.

Harry nodded, "Thanks to Flynn here, I was abducted and held captive by remaining Death Eaters." Kingsley looked surprised but gestured for Harry to continue. This was one of the reasons why Harry liked Kingsley, he waited for the whole story. "It happened when Flynn told me to meet him at a Muggle bar to discuss a theory I had concerning the case about Hermione Granger. I was attacked from behind by the bouncer and then by Flynn and Kolo. I managed to get out of the bar but was then Stunned from behind. When I woke up, I was in a room and Hermione Granger was there as well. We ended up meeting a man called Deimos, who is, or rather was, Voldemort's secret protege. He then called in Flynn to kill us but we escaped. Now, Flynn is telling us that it couldn't be him as he was meeting with you that night, which was two nights ago and last night. My question is, was he?" Harry finished.

Kingsley stood up and looked Flynn straight in the eye, "No, that cannot be true as I was at Arthur's for supper two nights ago and last night, I was at St Mungo's with Ulaha, meeting his newborn son." He turned to Harry, "He was adorable by the way."

Harry smiled, glad that Kingsley could still find humour in this situation. "Thank you, sir. I'll be taking him down for questioning now."

Kingsley nodded, "Good. Maybe we'll get to the bottom of this. You said you found Ms Granger though ..."

"Yes, sir. I didn't want to bring her in immediately as I'm not sure that the Ministry or St Mungo's is safe at the time. While I was being held captive, I noticed that there are still many Death Eaters here at the Ministry."

"Come back up here after you take him down. I would like to talk more about Deimos as well."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, Mr Potter." Harry nodded and left the office, heading down to the trial room where Flynn would be tried by the whole court.

"Harry, dear boy. Why don't we talk this over, one-on-one? I'm sure I could be of some assistance."

Harry ignored him and his pleadings until he met Jericho just outside the door. "Did you get them in time?"

"Yep. Just before they left after discussing the last case of under-aged magic." Jericho smiled wryly. "I'm sure you know all about that eh, Mr Potter?"

Harry laughed. "Sure do. Oh and be careful of him," he jerked his thumb at Flynn, "he's trying to tell me that he'll help us any way he can."

"Well, I'll take him from here. I'm sure that the Minister would like to speak with you some more?" Harry nodded.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Don't mention it. I always enjoy it when scum is being questioned. It makes me giddy."

Jericho chuckled and Harry smiled at him before saying, "See you later."

Harry walked slowly back upstairs to the Minister's office, wondering what to do next. The logical thing would be to round up all the Death Eaters in the Ministry, or as many as they could and take them down for questioning. But some were bound to get away and tell Deimos that they were being captured. However, Deimos probably knew that already, if he knew Harrry, then he would know that Harry would go to the Ministry almost immediately.

Before he knew it, he was standing outside the Minister's office, staring at the door. "Are you going to knock or are you going to stand there all day?" said a voice behind him and he jumped, startled. Looking around, he discovered that it was the same man who had been talking to Kingsley when Harry had interrupted earlier.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." He knocked and Kingsley bid him enter, which he did.

"Close the door behind you please, Mr Potter." Harry did so and walked forward until he was standing in front of the desk. "Have a seat please, Harry." Harry smiled at Kingsley and sat down. He liked it best when they could drop all pretenses. "Now, tell me about Deimos."

Harry told Kingsley what had transpired in complete detail, knowing that he could trust Kingsley even if he could trust no one else. When he had finished, Kingsley was sitting very much like Dumbledore used to, with his fingers together in likeness of a church steeple.

"Well, this could cause us quite a few problems," said Kingsley. "First thing we need to do is put someone in charge of the Auror Department so that they have someone to take orders from and it's not complete chaos." Kingsley looked at Harry seriously. "How would you like to do it, Harry?"

"I'm not too sure about that, sir. They think I'm too young to be an Auror at all, I don't think they'd like it if I were to be in charge of them. Many of them have been here for years."

"I see where you're coming from, Harry, but a lot of them know a good leader when they see one. Including myself. And when I look back at everything you've done, I know that you're quite capable of doing this job. Think of it as a trial run, you're in charge temporarily. Then, at the end of this, if you decide that you can't handle it or there are too many problems, then I shall find someone else. Is that fair?"

Harry thought it through for a moment and then replied, "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now then, about Deimos. This is a problem, a huge problem. How could no one have known that Voldemort had a protege? Not even Dumbledore would have guessed." Kingsley rubbed his eyes tiredly. "We might as well put together a raid on the house. See if we can't bring everyone in. Can you remember where it was?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Ok. Then, I need to talk to Hermione and see what she can tell us. Maybe she picked something up. How about I go over and speak with her while you plan the raid with your team?"

"Sounds good. She may be resting though. She didn't get much sleep there and next to no food, if any. You'll need to get past Mrs Weasley at any rate."

Kingsley smiled, "I always enjoy a good challenge."

Harry headed out and down to the Auror Department. He walked in and everyone looked up expectantly. "The Minister wants us to plan for a raid on the house where I was kept. And ... well ... he's put me in charge. For now." Harry added quickly but he needn't have bothered. As soon as he'd spoke, everyone had listened and when he had mentioned the plan, everyone had started rummaging around for a quill and a piece of parchment. No one complained when he told them that he was in charge either. Maybe Kingsley was right, thought Harry, amazed. He stared at them for a moment and was taken back to his fifth year when he was surprised that everyone was following his orders during the DA. Then, with a start, he was brought back to the present and he got down to work, creating a plan for the raid.


	15. The Attack

A/N: I'm not sure if I should keep the pairings in the book (R/Hr and H/G) or switch it to H/Hr. Please review and tell me what you think. :)

Exams are only a week away and so, with that note, this will be the last chapter I post until after exams. I was able to post this one since I am not going to school tomorrow but will instead, be going to get a check-up from my surgeon about my knee. Since the doctor works at a hospital out of town, I will be out for most of the day. I hope you're enjoying the story though and I can't wait to continue it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry looked at the clock. Five more minutes until they apparated to the mansion where he and Hermione had been held captive. He watched the Aurors for a moment; the younger Aurors were joking around, thinking that this was going to be a breeze while some of the Aurors who had been there longer, were watching the clock looking slightly apprehensive. They knew what could happen.

"You all right?" Jericho said from behind Harry who jumped.

"Yeah." Harry tried to sound as though he had known that Jericho was behind him the whole time.

"Normally I would tell the rookie that, even though this was their first time doing it, they should just relax and be sure to act on instinct. But I'm sure that you've done this many times anyway so I won't bother."

Harry smiled. "More times then I'd like to admit. Or remember for that matter."

Jericho laughed. "It does start to feel like that to some people eventually. You know, if you had been working for the Ministry during You-Know-Who's rein, I would definitely call you a senior member."

"Yeah, but then I might not have gotten into as much trouble at school because I would have gone through school before it happened," Harry chuckled.

"Or it might have happened simply because you went to school. Time is a strange thing. I know I never want to mess around with it."

"That is a wise choice," said Ulaha, walking up to them. "You two ready?"

"Yeah. Got my wand and everything." Jericho tried to look like an innocent school-boy for a moment and then grinned. Ulaha just shook his head.

"Everyone ready to go?" Harry called out to the room. There was a smattering of yells and head nods and Harry said, "Let's go then." Everyone followed him down to the main hall where they moved to the disapparating area. From there, they apparated one-by-one to the mansion.

Harry looked around, the street was deserted and then popping noises were all around him as the other Aurors joined him. He started down to the high gate and then blasted it open with his wand before walking in. They walked up to the door, some of the Aurors going around to the back and then barged in, wands pointed and ready to fire. "We took too long to get here," thought Harry for a moment before a Death Eater wearing a mask ran up the stairs, stopping up short as he saw them. He opened his mouth to yell but a quick Stunner from one of the Aurors saw to that. Harry pointed along the hallway and immediately Aurors began to separate. He then went to the stairs and started down them. At each level, Aurors separated from the group so that only Harry, Jericho and Ulaha were left in the stairway. "Come on," said Harry and they entered the fourth floor hallway, looking around them cautiously.

They began to search the rooms and almost didn't notice when a Death Eater came into the hallway after them. It was only Ulaha's quick spell-work and amazing instincts that got them out of that situation.

They reached the last three rooms and each of them took one. Harry entered the room on the right and found that it was empty. Or at least that's what he thought at first. There was a sudden noise behind him and Harry dove to the side just as a jet of green light shot right through the space where his head had just been. He got up slowly, looked in the direction that the spell had come from and his eyes narrowed as they found Deimos sitting in a chair behind a desk.

"Hello Potter. How nice it is to see you," Deimos said. He waved his wand and the door swung shut with a loud bang. There were shouts immediately from Jericho and Ulaha and they started pounding on the door after _Alohomora_ didn't work.

"Harry! Harry are you in there?" They shouted to him. Then there was a curse and a loud bang followed by a thud.

"Jericho? Ulaha?" Harry called. There was no answer except for what sounded like the breaking of glass and spells being shouted.

Deimos laughed. "They'll never make it out of here. None of them will. You see, instead of leaving our comfy little headquarters, we decided to plan a surprise attack. Or should I say defence against you. We were not caught unprepared. That really would be stupid now, wouldn't it?

"Anyway, you'll find that I'm not as patient as the Dark Lord was and I don't like to stand around and chit-chat with the person I'm about to kill. As I see it, that was one of the mistakes he made. Giving you time to check your surroundings and prepare your spell-work. But, Harry Potter, today you're not going to be given that chance. I want you dead, and it's going to happen."

"If you want me dead so badly, why didn't you kill me yourself the other day. Why let Flynn do it?"

"Simple. He asked me. If you were to live, Potter, you would find that I give more chances than the Dark Lord and I show more mercy. Which is why Flynn will be taking over in the Ministry once you're dead. The Minister's murder will be a complete accident of course and blamed on you. It won't be hard. Now, goodbye Potter."

Before Deimos had a chance to send a curse toward him, Harry brought his wand down in a slashing movement. The same one, in fact that had been used against Hermione in the Ministry. Instead of collapsing in pain, however, Deimos simply stood there, unaffected. He had thrown up a quick Shield Charm as Harry had cast the spell.

Deimos smiled. "So Harry Potter, you do know how to play. I thought dear Bellatrix was exaggerating."

"So Bellatrix knew about you."

"Of course. As she liked to point out, she was the Dark Lord's most trusted. His closest "friend". Besides me of course. I doubt that anyone knew his most treasured secrets except me."

Harry snorted. "Treasured secrets? Probably just a bunch of stupid stuff that didn't matter. The biggest secrets were you and the Horcruxes and in case you didn't know, the Horcruxes were discovered and destroyed. Which is why he's dead."

"They were not silly things, these secrets." Deimos's eyes seemed to burn for a second before returning to normal. "The Dark Lord would tell no one about this. His goals, his dreams."

"You mean to be ruler over the world? To have a bunch of slaves at his command? To wipe out all Muggles? Yeah, no one knew about any of that," said Harry sarcastically.

"You know nothing," Deimos said. Harry noticed that Deimos was shaking with anger and got ready to end this friendly chat and start fighting for his life.

"I know that I know quite a bit more than you think I do. Now, I'm going to ask this, not because I think you'll accept but because I have to," Harry started.

"Always a good boy aren't you? Doing what you're told. Following proceedures," Deimos smirked.

"Are you going to come quietly or are you going to make me bring you in by force?"

"Aren't you confident that you're going to win?" Deimos taunted.

"After battling with Voldemort for seven years, I've decided that I don't want to die now," said Harry.

Deimos looked even angrier if that was possible. "How _dare_ you? How _dare _you say his name! You unworthy, no good, foul -"

"Let me know when you're finished." Harry had had enough of his taunting. He wanted to get out of there and go home.

Deimos snarled and started cursing at Harry who was ready and started dodging and cursing Deimos as well.

"You should have died years ago, Potter. When your father and mudblood mother died. Now, you're going to go where you belong. With the two of them!"

"I don't think so. But thanks for the offer," Harry replied as he threw himself to the side to avoid a purple light. He twisted in mid jump and cast _Reducto_ on the bookcase which was behind Deimos. It fell forward and landed on him with a crash. This gave Harry a moment to catch his breath before Deimos struggled out from the many books covering him. Before he had a real chance to recover, Harry shot _Expelliarmus_ at him and his wand went flying. "_Accio!_" Harry said and the wand zoomed into his waiting hand. "It's over Deimos," said Harry as he pointed his wand at him. "Come with me. There's a nice cell waiting for you."

"I don't think so. You see I'm not done yet. You haven't heard from your dear Ginerva recently, have you? Nor from that traitor, Malfoy?"

"What are you talking about Deimos? I saw them hours ago." Harry said suspiciously.

"Well you see, I had this attack already thought out, the defence and the jinxes were ready. I also thought to plan ahead, just in case you managed to get this far, to get to me. So I arranged a small surprise for your friends. And, I'm not sorry to say that the surprise for the traitors cannot be stopped by anyone but me." Deimos was smirking now, knowing full well that Harry would not take any chances when it came to Ginny.

"I think you're lying."

"Are you willing to take that chance? Are you going to bet someone's life on the fact that you _think_ I'm bluffing. It's up to you, I suppose but I think I know you better than that."

"You're coming with me," Harry snarled. His temper was going up and he knew that soon he'd end up doing something he'd regret. Keeping his eye on Deimos, he pointed at the door and broke through the spell that Deimos had placed on it so that it opened with a loud _crash_. He swung his wand arm so that his wand was once again, pointed at Deimos and directed him out of the room. Once out, he saw Ulaha taking care of Jericho and the two Death Eater's were tied up at the end of the hall.

"Harry! Are you all right? We were worried about you! Is that Deimos? Let's get him to the Ministry and some Healers here to take care of the wounded. The fight's over." Ulaha said quickly.

"I'm fine, thanks. Sorry for worrying you. I need Deimos actually. He's enlightened me to the fact that there is a threat at my house."

Ulaha looked up sharply. "I'll come with you. You can't look out for threats and keep an eye on him at the same time." He conjured a stretcher and he and Harry went to the stairwell and began to climb the stairs. When they met other Aurors, Ulaha told them what he and Harry were going to do and then gave Jericho to them to take to St Mungo's.

Once outside the anti-apparation jinx, Ulaha turned to Harry and said, "Oh, and Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Good job today," Ulaha said somewhat gruffly.

"Thanks. You too." Harry smiled. Maybe becoming head Auror wouldn't be so bad. "Let's go."


	16. Deimos' Downfall

A/N: Yay! My exams are over and I'm free! So in celebration, I decided to write this chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Harry Potter, just some random characters. If I did own Harry Potter, do you really think I'd be writing this and doing exams?!?!

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

Harry stared across the grassy green lawn to what was left of his house. The house was now charred black and parts of it seem to have been blasted away. Smoke was still billowing up into the air. It was almost like a reminder of what had happened to his parents house in Godric's Hollow. That couldn't have happened here. He turned to Deimos and shook him roughly.

"What happened here? I thought you were supposed to give a signal of some kind," said Harry, almost growling. "Well?" he demanded.

"I-I-I don't k-k-know," stammered Deimos feebly. "They were supposed to wait. I didn't give a signal. I swear!" he said, panicked as Harry's wand dug in to his throat.

With an angry yell, Harry started running towards the house and then inside calling, "Ginny? Ginny are you here? Malfoy?"

Ulaha and Deimos had entered the house now and were looking at the ruins. There was stuff everywhere in the normally neat house and everything that wasn't burnt was covered in ash.

Suddenly Harry heard a creak on the stairs and motioned for the two to be quiet. Deimos snarled as if to say "make me" but at a glare from Harry and a threatening wand movement from Ulaha and he stayed silent.

Quietly, Harry crept towards the stairway and then turned the corner with his wand pointed straight. In front of him was a man in black robes, a Death Eater mask dangling in his hand. He was looking down and trying not to fall down the stairs. He was not holding a wand. Harry took a step forward and the floor creaked. The Death Eater looked up in surprise and Harry had to hold back a gasp.

Half of his face seemed to be missing and what was left had melted into an indecipherable mess. One of his ears was missing and there was blood streaming down the side of his face. One look told Harry that his wounds were fatal.

"W-w-wa-" the man gasped, unable to speak. Harry saw that his throat was also burned and there was a cut across it as well. If this man had set the fire, he wouldn't want to know what Ginny looked like. Or even Malfoy for that matter.

He ran up the unsteady stairs, ignoring the man's gasping, gurgling pleas for water and made it on to what was left of the second story. He started checking rooms not caring if the floor was unstable, not caring if a step would send him down to the main level and possibly break a bone or two.

No one in his and Ginny's room, no one in the bathroom, the guest bedroom no longer existed and the closet was a pile of rubble. He checked the last room, another bedroom. There was no one in there either. "Oh, Merlin no. Please, no." Harry muttered to himself, figuring that they had been burnt to ash. He fell to his knees, in complete shock, although if he thought about it, it was probably better for them that way than to be alive and walking around like the Death Eater on the stairs.

At that moment, a scream came from outside. A very familiar scream. He shot up like a bullet and looked down at the drive. There stood Ginny and Malfoy, both of them with looks of horror on their faces. Then Ginny started sprinting towards the house, Malfoy following. Harry turned and, once again forgetting about the unstable floor, ran towards the stairs narrowly avoiding falling through the floor as it crumbled behind him. The stairs also collapsed as he ran down them and he jumped the last six. He pushed aside the dying Death Eater and ran out, catching Ginny up in a bear hug, holding her close and breathing in her scent.

"Ginny, Ginny, I thought I'd lost you," Harry murmured into her ear.

"I thought I lost you too. I didn't know if you were in the house or not and - and -" she trailed off unable to continue.

"It's okay. We're both here. We're safe," Harry reassured her softly. From the ground came a moan of defeat. Harry looked down in surprise. He had completely forgotten about Malfoy.

"What is it? You're alive," Harry pointed out.

"They know I'm here Pothead and they want me to join them," said Malfoy, snarling.

"They know you're here, yes but that's not why they burned the house. Come, Deimos is in the other room and I need to find out who did this."

Together, they walked into the room where Harry had left Ulaha and Deimos and Harry looked around, weary. The room was empty. Maybe Ulaha had taken Deimos around to see the rest of the house? Harry led the way through empty rooms, his wand drawn and ready to spring into action. Then he entered the living-room. Ulaha was lying unconscious in the middle of the floor, a small pool of blood gathered around his head. Harry motioned for Ginny and Malfoy to be quiet and to stay where they were. Alone, he entered the room and walked carefully over to Ulaha, scanning around the room as he did, including behind him.

"Ulaha? Come on, speak to me," said Harry, shaking the Auror slightly. Ulaha's eyes flickered and he looked straight at Harry.

"Potter," he smiled weakly, "you've done a great job and t-t-thank you for -" Ulaha stopped and started again. "I think you'll make a great Head of the Auror Department." With that, Ulaha's head lolled to the side and he began to stiffen.

"Touching. Too bad you won't live long enough for that to happen."

Harry turned quickly and was blasted backwards. He slammed against the wall, his head connecting with a loud thump and he fell face first to the ground. Harry heaved himself up slightly and staggered for a second hoping that he wouldn't black out.

Deimos was laughing now and Harry could see that he had Ginny and Malfoy tied up against the wall.

"Well, the trap didn't work out as well as I had hoped but this suits me just fine. _Crucio_!' he fired at Harry. Harry gasped out in pain, not having had the strength to dodge the curse. The pain went away and a soft, coaxing voice drifted through the lingering thoughts of pain. "Did you enjoy that, Potter? No? Have another round then." And once again, Harry felt as though white hot knives were stabbing him all over. Once again, the pain went away. Harry got to his feet, feeling slightly numb. He hadn't had anything to eat in two days and almost no sleep. He was completely exhausted.

Harry gathered up as much strength as he could and then cast two patronuses. Deimos laughed.

"Is that all you can do? Is that all the great Harry Potter can do?" still laughing, Deimos turned to Ginny and pointed his wand at her. "What about now? Are you going to cast another patronus to _attack_ me perhaps?"

Harry glared at the man in front of him. He had thought it was over with the defeat of Voldemort but trust him to have a backup plan for world domination even if he _was_ afraid of death.

"_Avada K -_" Deimos started but cut off when a loud crashing sound came from the entrance. "What was that? Potter, what did you do!" It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Deimos turned to leave the room and Harry lunged at him, trying to get the wand - Ulaha's wand.

Colorful lights and yells suddenly flooded the room as Harry and Deimos rolled around, each vying for control of the wand.

Harry had had enough. He brought back his right arm and punched Deimos in the face. He definitely wasn't expecting that. Deimos let go of the wand with a gasp and Harry immediately took it. He looked around the room before straightening up and found that the Order members that he had contacted as well as the Aurors. They were all fighting remaining Death Eaters who were falling, one by one.

Harry cast a stunner at Deimos who fell still instantly and then joined in the fray. While he, Ginny and Malfoy had been outside, Harry had noticed something black going around the corner of the house. He hadn't been sure if it was a Death Eater or not and so had decided to leave it alone while he confronted Deimos. When it had looked as though Deimos had won, Harry had sent messages to the Order and the Aurors to get there and be ready to fight.

Now, Harry sent curse after curse at the Death Eaters and dodged even more, slowly making his way over to where Ginny and Malfoy were fighting. Relieved that someone had set them free, he cast another curse at the Death Eater who was trying to get Ginny from behind and then attacked the one who was advancing on Malfoy who nodded at Harry in thanks when the Death Eater fell.

Moments later, the fighting stopped and grouped in the middle with a rope binding them all and an anti-apparation jinx to stop them from apparating were the last of the Death Eaters. There weren't many of them left from the Last Battle but it looked as though they had managed to find some newcomers.

Harry walked over and joined the others in pulling off the masks. Flynn and Kolo were among them of course as were other Ministry employees that made everyone gasp.

Arms wrapped around Harry and he turned to find Ginny, staring at the group of Death Eaters.

"I thought it was over. I knew they were still out there but I thought they would just disappear when He fell," Ginny said quietly.

"I know, Gin. I thought so too," Harry pulled her tighter and then released her to go over and shake hands with Malfoy.

"Thank you, Malfoy," he said. Malfoy's grey eyes looked at him in surprise.

"Why?" he asked.

"For being strong enough to ask for help when you needed it. For fighting on our side when we needed you here and for trusting us to hide you," said Harry. He meant it too. Malfoy had made choices again, tough choices for the second time in his life and this time he had chosen what was right instead of what was easy. Harry was sure that Dumbledore would have been proud that he had been right when it came to his former student.

"Well, I didn't do it for you," said Malfoy.

"I know, but it doesn't matter. You did do it, and that's all that does matter."

Harry spent the next little while helping the Order members clean up while the Aurors took the Death Eaters in for sentencing in Azkaban. Ginny had gone to Shell Cottage to tell her everyone what had happened and Malfoy had returned to his mother.

Once the house was cleaned up - meaning completely demolished and gone - Harry went to the Ministry. He needed to speak with Kingsley who had returned just after the fight was over. He went straight up to his office and knocked. The door swung open almost immediately and Kingsley beckoned for Harry to enter. He did and then sat down to talk about everything that had happened.

Upon leaving the Minister's office and apparating to Shell Cottage, Harry wondered if he had made the right choice.


	17. Epilogue

A/N: I'm so happy that summer is here and that there's no more school that I decided to post two chapters here. This is it though, the end of As an Auror and your Brother. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it and I hope you'll check out my other stories. Thank you to all my reviewers and those who put this story on Story Alert and those who put me on their Author Alerts. Now, enough of that! On to the end!

And please, try not to laugh at my attempts at a speech, there's a reason why I don't do them.

One more thing, please review! It would be greatly appreciated still!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just some random characters.

Summary: Harry Potter, new Auror but no stranger to the Dark Arts has to battle the remaining Death Eaters and save his sister or rather soon to be sister-in-law.

* * * * *

"Harry Potter." Once again, a month after the attempted revenge for Voldemort by Deimos, Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice rang throughout the large room where many people were congregated.

Harry got up from his seat and made his way to the centre aisle where he walked up, sure and confident about his decision. He shook hands with the Minister and then turned to the assembled audience, smiling. He saw Ginny, Ron and Hermione in their seats just like last time, cheering him on and taking pictures.

Harry turned to the microphone and began to speak. The crowed fell silent at once as everyone listened to what The Chosen One had to say.

"Well, I wasn't really sure what to say here today but I have a few ideas. I would like to say thank you to those who supported my decision to accept the position of Head of the Auror Department and that includes all of my colleagues and my friends and family. I would also like to take a moment to go back to the three days when Deimos was trying to get his revenge on those who had participated in the destruction of Voldemort."

A shudder travelled through the congregation and Harry resisted the urge to tell them that 'fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself. And besides, he's gone.' Instead, he said, "I lost a - well I guess you could say, friend - that day. James Ulaha. He was a strong fighter and a loyal one at that. I discovered after the fight that he had been on Voldemort's side in the beginning but had turned against him, feeling that his methods were all wrong. There's a lesson we can all learn from him. And that lesson is that it's never too late to do the right thing." He took a moment to look around the room at all the faces.

"Another person who displayed this lesson is Draco Malfoy. During the Second War, Voldemort recruited him to make up for the mistakes that Lucius had made. Dumbledore gave him a choice before he died to either kill him as he was supposed to, or to do the right thing and go into hiding with his mother. Last month, he had to make another choice. The same one. This time, he decided to go into hiding instead of joining Deimos and ended up assisting us greatly in the fight that took place at the end. Remember this lesson and do the right thing. Thank you, once again."

Harry stepped away from the podium to great applause and mutterings. He walked back to join Hermione, Ginny, and Ron, who was holding a certificate having finally passed his Auror training.

"Nice speech, mate," said Ron cheerfully. He was ecstatic that he had passed and he couldn't wait to get home. He was sure that Mrs Weasley had made a great lunch for them to enjoy in celebration.

"Thanks," said Harry. Ginny reached up and kissed him quickly on the lips and Harry found himself smiling contentedly.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Hermione asked. Everyone nodded before Harry remembered that he wanted to go talk to the other Aurors.

"Just a moment. Don't worry, Ron, it'll just be a second." Harry walked to where the Aurors were all standing and talking and invited them to the celebrations. He was determined to get to know them better than his predecessor ever had. He was also determined to let them into his life so they would trust him. They accepted and Harry went back to the group and said, "OK, let's go."

They apparated to the newly built Burrow, confident that today would be a good day. Mrs Weasley beckoned to them from the door and once they reached it, she pulled Ron into a bone-crushing hug and then Harry. Ron gasped.

"You didn't come out and attack me for becoming an Auror!" he said to his Mum accusingly. Everyone watched him slightly warily. Then he grinned and said, "I'm just kidding!" Everyone sighed in relief and made sure that everything was ready for the guests.

"Good afternoon, Minerva," said Harry well into the celebrations. "Enjoying yourself?"

"Yes, quite. Thank you Harry." Minerva McGonagall smiled. "I want to congratulate you. Not for becoming the Head Auror. I already knew you were going to make it there in your career, but for another fight well won."

"Thanks," Harry said.

"As for your speech, Albus would have been proud of it."

"Thanks again." Minerva gestured to the rest of the guests.

"Remember that we're always here for you, whenever you need help."

"I won't forget, Minerva." She smiled at him once again and then went off to mingle. Harry smiled as well, glad that he had her approval. She was honest and he knew he had earned her compliments, otherwise she never would have given them. He turned back to Jericho, who had recovered nicely and continued their conversation, glad that Voldemort would no longer bother him, directly or indirectly ever again.


End file.
